At Tuesday’s Republican Leadership press conference, I said the following:
“When I hear the President and Speaker Pelosi talking about budgets, it reminds me of a character from Popeye’s cartoon, Wimpy. He always said, ‘I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today’…. The ‘Wimpy philosophy’ toward budgeting has resulted in a wimpy economic recovery.”
You can watch the full video and read a transcript of my extended remarks below.
“Coming out of the G20 summit, there was some good news and some bad news. I would say the good news was that our allies were able to convince our administration that we need to cut our deficit in half by 2013 after it was tripled in the first year of this administration. The bad news is that we see little intention by the Obama Administration to really follow through when we continue to see more and more requests for stimulus funding. This is on top of $787 billion in stimulus last year that resulted in 4 million private sector jobs being lost. Now the Democrats aren’t even drafting a budget. According to the president’s own budget director, he said that asking the Democrats to cut spending this year would be a ‘fruitless exercise’ that would probably ‘go nowhere.’ Yet, the American people all across this country are demanding better. They would like to see some leadership from Congress to get our fiscal house in order.
“When I hear the president and Speaker Pelosi talking about budgets, it reminds me of a character from Popeye’s cartoon, Wimpy. He always said ‘I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today.’ The ‘Wimpy philosophy’ toward budgeting has resulted in a wimpy economic recovery. America doesn’t need more stimulus. It needs leadership. To quote Paul Willen, the economics professor at MIT, he said ‘to create jobs, the private sector needs to know that Washington can make tough choices, that our leaders are willing to do things that are unpopular, and more than anything the people need to feel that the government is not out of control.’ The G20 summit was a wonderful opportunity for our president to exercise some leadership in taking control of where we’re headed with the global economy. Unfortunately, that opportunity was missed because we’re continuing to add $5 billion a day in debt that is going to be carried by our children and grandchildren.”
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
"Pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today"....
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Wednesday, June 30th at 9:21PM EST (link)That is in a word WIMPY & it is the policy of the Obama Administration & his merry band of tools in the Congress!
Unified Patriots – How-To:
Activists Taking Action
J. Wellington Wimpy actually said,
JamesonLewis3rd Wednesday, June 30th at 9:55PM EST (link)“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Yes, I still remember it from 50+ years ago.
I know, it’s not really important, but somehow Tuesday seems even more fiscally irresponsible than tomorrow.
Hebrews 11:8
Jeremiah 33:3
Correct, tomorrow is too immediate.
eastbaylarry (Diary) Thursday, July 1st at 1:18PM EST (link)Tomorrow is the day after today, but Tuesday happens every week, so could be anytime.
2+2=4 dammit!
Well stated Cathy
snowshooze (Diary) Wednesday, June 30th at 10:14PM EST (link)But there is no need to sugar coat it… why don’t you just speak your mind?
Lol… good job, keep on it and turn it up some.
XOX
Mark
Which State do you represent?
snowshooze (Diary) Wednesday, June 30th at 10:17PM EST (link)We would welcome you in Alaska…
WA
JamesonLewis3rd Thursday, July 1st at 5:51AM EST (link)She has represented Washington’s 5th congressional district since January 2005.
Hebrews 11:8
Jeremiah 33:3
The whole thing is a joke...
neoavatara (Diary) Wednesday, June 30th at 10:22PM EST (link)The stimulus, economic plan, etc…they don’t have a clue, other than to follow the long ago proven long liberal playbook.
I really fear the next 2 years under Obama.
http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=11292
www.neoavatara.com/blog
The real math
snowshooze (Diary) Wednesday, June 30th at 10:24PM EST (link)Is that $14,000 per capita, per year?
Don't bother me! Can't you see I'm eating a hamburger?
SoFiMil (Diary) Wednesday, June 30th at 10:34PM EST (link)…and after that I have a golf game to go to.
…Church? What’s that?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7862345/Russian-spy-ring-Russia-and-US-enjoying-renaissance.html
(Wish I knew how to embed pictures.)
www.suvstrategery.blogspot.com
econ news
rdelbov Wednesday, June 30th at 10:39PM EST (link)ADP projects only 13K in new private industry jobs were added in May. The trend line is down and not up.
New unemployment claims are averaging 460K a week over the last month or so–400K is a sign of a flat job market-300K new claims per week is a sign that the job market is growing.
A joblink that I am a part of has a pickup in recent activity–more people are looking for a job.
From Maine to CA to WA to HI government at the state-local-school district levels are going through layoffs-furloughs-reduced hours-pay freezes-pay cuts as they deal with budget woes. Even the post office looks to cut saturday hours and reduce job numbers by 40K
Crystal ball anyone? It looks bad. Politics aside its bad for America and Americans. Obama has scared American employers with Cap & Trade threats-financial reform-HC-taxes (do we have tax rates for 2011?)and his green job plans (natural gas-coal-oil are bad-).
This is not the change people wanted
Doesn't it seem ironic...so many nations in the G20
lineholder (Diary) Wednesday, June 30th at 10:53PM EST (link)basically falling to the side of fiscal conservatism? Someone should tell Obama that he came late to the ball.
His economic policies are now considered to be out-dated. All the other guests who have partaken of those policies have had their fill and then some. It wasn’t as sweet as they had thought it would be.
The guests are all leaving the ball now. There will be no one to admire the “illustriousness” of our imperious President.
It's a shame...
p3orion Thursday, July 1st at 11:08AM EST (link)It’s a shame (and an embarrassment) that we can actually look to China and Russia and find fiscal policies more conservative than that of the Marxists in this administration. Russia has a 13% flat-rate income tax, and recently announced deep cuts to their capital-gains tax rate.
If the U.S. were to follow suit (and to lock it in for several years, so that businesses could plan accordingly) the recovery would take off. People would have more disposable income to purchase things, increasing the demand for goods and services. And investment would skyrocket, allowing businesses to hire back their workers to provide those goods and services.
Of course, that would mean fewer people dependent on the “generosity” of the federal government, so it will never happen under Obama’s watch.
Well played Congresswoman!
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Thursday, July 1st at 12:06PM EST (link)Mockery is somewhere in the Alinsky’s Rules for Republicans, and we should heap the Wimpy thing on them good and heavy.
And yes, I agree. As long as employers are scared of the next crazy thing the Obamanistas are going to do, they’re simply not going to hire.
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
And small business types are leaving the playing field...
acat (Diary) Thursday, July 1st at 12:21PM EST (link)When your whole business is a handful of people in the cheapest rented office you can get away with, and there’s uncertainty in a big portion of the expenses including health care, retirement accounts, tax liabilities .. just not hiring isn’t enough.
I know a couple small business owners – both are looking at minimizing their costs, one is looking at shutting his doors and taking “a few years off” before starting a new small business.
That, if it’s a statistic and not a fluke, is the worst possible result because it’s the small businesses that provide most of the job growth.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
We are building bunkers and stocking up on canned foods
JSobieski (Diary) Thursday, July 1st at 12:52PM EST (link)Seriously, I had this exact conversation yesterday. 30 minute discussion on how to build a “safe room” in a walk-out basement.
Client wasn’t planning on adding employees any time soon.
My rules of the road for primary season.
Rule #1: Vote for YOUR first choice in the primaries
Rule #2: Vote for the R in the general.
Rule #3: Don’t let anyone convince you to violate Rule #1 or Rule #2
Rule #4: When in a center-right argument, reaffirm Rules #1-#3–it will help us all to get along better.
Rule #5: If you are using the language of the left, you probably aren’t furthering conservativism
Rule #6: The priority is issues first, candidates second, and supporters third. Nobody is bigger than the issues. Conversely, if you spend your time focusing on supporters, you are wasting everyone’s time.
STOP THE MADNESS!
A reduction in the rate of spending increases is NOT a cut!
In-state tuition for illegals is NOT amnesty!
Requiring someone to pay their medical bills is NOT an individual mandate!
Reducing tax rates is NOT a tax increase!
Well, I don't have a walk-out basement...
acat (Diary) Thursday, July 1st at 1:56PM EST (link)but some of the ground floor walls are block. I’m also well placed to survive high gas prices location-wise, but not so well placed ca$h-wise. Thinking seriously of building up some bulk reserves now…
Mew
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“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Wimpy
bretz21 Thursday, July 1st at 10:46PM EST (link)Not to be nitpicking but Wimpy said”I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”
Now that we have the important things of the day done I’d like to talk about the “Wimpy” recovery we had or supposed to have had.
I feel as many Conservatives that if we had any kind of recovery we’re going or are back in another recession and this one will be worse than the first. Darn Bush!!! KIDDING! I just don’t know where the inflation is? I have been expecting it and have told others that inflation will be in in the high teens to 20%. You can’t keep printing money and keep spending without the inflation.
I have never in my life heard that the only way to get out of a recession is massive spending. That’s just pure insanity.
I’ve been in Banking over 20 years so I’d like to think I know something about economics.
Robert Bretz