2009 Government Profits--and Obama was President

From The Associated Press: Fed Posts Record Profit Of $46.1B For Last Year:

"January 12, 2010 The Federal Reserve made a record profit of $46.1 billion last year, reflecting money made off its extraordinary efforts to rescue the country from the worst economic and financial crisis since the 1930s, the central bank announced Tuesday.

"The windfall gets turned over to the Treasury Department.

"It marks the biggest profit on record dating back to 1914 when the Fed was created...

"The Fed says the bigger profit was primarily due to increased income from the securities it held last year (2009--Obama's time as president--emphasis mine.)

"Such income went up as the Fed's holdings of securities mushroomed.

"The Fed launched several securities-buying programs last year to help revive the economy. Its goal is to drive down rates on mortgages and other consumer debt.

"Under one program that ended last year, the Fed snapped up $300 billion worth of government debt. Under another program, the Fed is on track to buy $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and an additional $175 billion in debt issued by the mortgage giants. Those programs have boosted the value of securities held by the Fed.

"The Fed is funded from the interest earned on it vast portfolio of securities. It is not funded by Congress.

"After covering its expenses, the Fed gives what is left over to the Treasury Department."

So Obama, like the other Democratic president before him--Clinton--is on the way to balancing the budget.

Let's never forget Clinton gave Bush a balanced budeget that Bush immediately exploded into some of the largest deficits in our nation's history.

Bush's TARP Failure--How Obama is Fixing Another Bush Mistake

From NPR (Source: Obama Considers Levy For Rescued Firms
by The Associated Press)

"The 2008 law that created the Troubled Asset Relief Program requires the president to seek a way to recoup unrecovered TARP money from financial institutions, but five years after the law was enacted. It does not specify how the money should be recovered."

2008? Wasn't Bush the president then?

Notice how the law the way the Republicans wrote it under Bush does not "specify how the money should be recovered."

So Obama has to once again fix what the Bush presidency broke:

"Targeting an industry whose political deafness has vexed his administration, President Barack Obama is weighing a levy aimed at recovering tax dollars from government-rescued financial institutions.

"The proposed levy could put Obama on the popular side of public opinion that is decidedly against Wall Street and angry over shortfalls in a $700 billion bank bailout fund.

"A senior administration official said Monday that Obama would seek modifications to the law that sent billions in bailout money in 2008 and 2009 to a flailing Wall Street that was approaching collapse."
--from the article cited above.

Obama and Seniors--Health Care

So senior citizens who have a hard time paying for prescriptions are now getting a boost--a program is now in place to give them additional resources to pay for their prescriptions.

And this happened under Obama's watch--but where is the praise. Click here for the article and notice his name is not mentioned at all.

I would have thought that since he is president, he would also be in charge of the Social Security Medicare Administration.

When did the recession begin?

"The economy has lost more than 8 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007." This from AP CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer.

Remember: George Bush was president then and Obama was running for nomination, but no one at that time seemed to take him seriously.

Obama won the 2008 election, but was not sworn in until January, 2009--a little over two years after the Bush regime did it's best with conservative assistance to destroy our country.

Obama Transparency

Say what you will about the Nigerian terrorist who came in on a flight from another nation with the intention of blowing up the plane he was on--at least Obama has the guts to put the report out there for all of us to see.

Bush and Cheney didn't have the guts to ever do this. We still have a great number of questions we want answered and they never gave us any answers--nor will they--because they are too chicken to do so. Conservatives have them scared to tell the truth and so they won't.

Haven't you wondered why we don't hear anything from Bush lately?

Obama and GM--Another Obama Success Story

Obama economics are working. Take the case of GM, for example. They are paying back what they owe the nation--even though they were in bankruptcy--and now they are even claiming a profit and jobs for dealers.

Click here for the whole story.

Now let's look at the conservative Republicans--they let too much fail under their regime and only a few have paid anything back--but under Obama: money is flowing in. Bank after bank has paid back what they borrowed.

Obama and Golfing

"I go to work a little before 7 a.m., and I expect everybody to show up on time when I have a meeting. I make time to run or exercise every day. There's never a question in my mind that I'll exercise. Even when I travel, there's always a treadmill in my room. I have a treadmill on Air Force One. On long trips-for example, when I went to Europe recently-I ran for 90 minutes on the flight over there. When I came back from China, I ran on the flight.

"Usually I run 6 days a week. When I don't run, I use an elliptical trainer, lift weights, and stretch. But when I run, I run hard. On Sundays, if I'm at Camp David, I'll go for a hard, morning run-these days about 20:30 to 20:45 for 3 miles on a tough course-and then I'll go walk 2 to 4 miles with Laura [the First Lady] afterward.

"I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. When I'm at my ranch in Crawford [Tex.], I can do longer runs. It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency. There would be nothing better than to take off on a long run around the Mall, but I just can't. I really miss those long ones.

"I believe anyone can make the time. As a matter of fact, I don't believe it-I know it. If the President of the United States can make the time, anyone can.

"Exercise is so important that corporate America should help its employees make time. There should be flextime for families, and there should be flextime for exercise. A healthy work force is a more productive work force. We have got to do a better job of encouraging exercise in America."

This is not Obama--this is George Bush--who also played a lot of golf. Click here for the link to the entire article.

So Obama golfs. George Bush ran. Sometimes he ran for a long period of time. He golfed too. Do presidents not need downtime? Are we as Americans so selfish we can have our leisure time, but we can't give that same right to the president?

Bush played golf and he ran.

Obama plays golf and basketball.

I admire Bush for his running regimen--surprised, aren't you?--and I admire Obama for his skill at basketball.