Republicans have potentially robbed this country of significant growth over the term of President Barack Obama out of spite , racial hatred, and politics.
Clearly there are economic head-winds which affect how the American economy behaves, after all we now live in a globalized economy where sniffles in Asia causes coughs here in America, there is no way around these hurdles anymore , we are becoming increasingly inter-dependent on each other to survive. How does that happen you ask? Well, when me have orders of heavy machinery or other Industrial equipment from countries in Europe, American workers have jobs building those machines , if conditions in those European countries are such that there is reduced or non-existent demand for those machines , Americans have no jobs to go to. Conversely when we are without jobs and are unable to buy their products their economies struggle . Wars and the threats of war affect economic activity, as we have seen with oil prices whenever the warmongers ratchet up talk of war the market gets skittish, investors do not like uncertainty . You would not put your hard-earned money into uncertain situations would you? Well there you have it!
I wrote that entire prologue to get to the word (uncertainty). They understand the consequences of uncertainty
Republican opponents of Barack Obama understood this when he was elected to the presidency , they understand it today.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ® Kentucky and House Speaker John Boehner ® Ohio, these are the faces of obstruction.
Imagine where the economy would be if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s priority was to work toward the betterment of the country they all claim to love, and not as he put it, quote (“My first priority is to ensure that Barack Obama is a one term president”) end quote.
Imagine where we would be if John Boehner had used the powers he was given for good. Boehner a man who cried when Republicans won the House in 2010 and he was elevated to Speaker, Boehner talked then about his journey from birth to the powerful job of Speaker of the American House of Representatives. One would have thought that if anyone understood the trials, travails and journey of the less privileged surely Boehner would be that person. The sojourn of Barack Hussein Obama, from Hawaii, to Kenya, to Indonesia, to Chicago to 1600 Pennsylvania avenue, is not that different from the less than ideal circumstances of Boehner’s biography.
Boehner was born in Reading, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne (née Hall) and Earl Henry Boehner, the second of twelve children. His father was of German descent and his mother had German and Irish ancestry.[2][3][4][5][6] He grew up in modest circumstances, having shared one bathroom with his eleven siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati. His parents slept on a pull-out couch.[7] He started working at his family’s bar at age 8, a business founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938.[7] He has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life. All but two of his siblings still live within a few miles of each other; two are unemployed and most of the others have blue-collar jobs.[Wikipedia
Boehner is the first in his family to have attended college, it took him 7 years to earn his BA Degree in Business Administration from Xavier University, where he graduated in 1977, as he was forced to work to finance his college education.
This story seems patently similar to the story of the guy who is now president, born to a black absentee father and a white mother, a mother who re-married, a man from Indonesia and took him there with her, then took him back to Hawaii and left him in the care of his all white grand parents. Yes the ingredient characteristics may be dis-similar, but the struggles and determination inherent in both stories are the hall-mark of what makes success fulfilling, not just the destination, more so the journey, yes these two men’s stories are vastly similar.
Yet the direction both men have taken with the immense blessings God has bestowed on them, could not be further from each other. As Obama spends his political capital struggling for the cause of the dispossessed, passing the Affordable care Act, keeping American workers employed by bailing out the Auto Industry , fighting for women’s’ rights by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act into law, ending the Iraq war, ending don’t ask don’t tell, winding down the war in Afghanistan, going after Osama Bin Laden surgically and removing him from the equation, taking out the top-tiered leadership of the al-Qaeda network, and prevented any further terror attacks on American soil and a whole litany of other successes, where is John Boehner?
Boehner conversely, has hitched his wagon to that of the most reactionary far right zealots in this country who cannot revel in the fact that the country they claim to love, has evolved so much so that it elected someone from a minority group to the most powerful position in the country.
Does that make John Boehner a Racist ? I seriously doubt that he is, what it makes John Boehner is a coward.
Republican Newt Gingrich swept to power during the early years of the Clinton Presidency on the so-called contract with America [sic] (more like the contract on America). Gingrich brought with him a whole freshman class loyal to him, who did his bidding. Boehner did not bring the tea party hacks to congress and they surely are not answerable to him. This is where the cowardice of Boehner is exposed, he wants to work with Obama to get things done but he knows that there are Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan waiting in the wings looking over his shoulders to see any sign of compromise in him, upon which they would hang him out to dry.
John Boehner does not want a mutiny aboard ship he would rather be a figure-head Captain than discipline the crew and be made to walk the plank.
As such, John Boehner’s Speakership/captaincy will be an infamous stewardship, one which saw unprecedented attempts to overturn the affordable care act which is in effect helping Americans, a vote to hold the Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder in contempt of congress over trivialities, taking numerous votes to limit women’s rights, and doing almost nothing to help govern the Nation republicans were elected to govern.
Boehner’s stewardship is an abject failure, the approval ratings of the nation’s congress is in the single digits, that will be the legacy of John Boehner, a man who came from humble beginnings to attain the sweet taste of political power, only to squander it on cheap political posturing and ideological obstructionism.
John Boehner could have made a difference, he could have stood up to the far right politics of those in his caucus and even though he does not have the life tenure of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts who clearly was mindful of his responsibilities and maybe his legacy in his vote to uphold the Affordable Care Act, Boehener could have chosen to die on his feet rather than live on his knees.
It is never a good idea to have the tail wagging the dog, The American House of Representatives is now a dysfunctional joke that is doing nothing to aid struggling Americans, that will be the legacy of John Boehner.
The difference between the leadership of Barack Obama and John Boehner is the difference in this election coming up in November, that is the contrast, not necessarily that between Obama and Romney.
Boehner should look at Barack Obama and learn some lessons on leadership, to whom much is given , much is expected, on this John Boehner is woefully lacking.
PS: To the birthers who continue to argue that Barack Obama is a Muslim because of his time spent as a child in the Nation of Indonesia, I understand how you would feel that way , after all Netanyahu’s education and time spent in the United States certainly made him a Christian.