Obama On Track To Break Records With Congressional Support

Congressional Quarterly:

As his presidency approaches the half-year mark, Barack Obama is on pace to be the most successful Oval Office occupant in more than half a century when measured by his ability to get Congress to vote his way -- even though he shows signs of carefully picking his fights on Capitol Hill.

Read the whole story: Congressional Quarterly

Comments

[americanalien]

President Obama will be the most successful President in U.S. history.

[mummyboyz]

This is a lame article.The Congress is mostly of his party and ideas,and goals.He just needs to rubberstamp everything and vote "Present" like he is used to.I bet he threw away the veto pen.By the way,did you notice that when he is at a news conference or talking without a teleprompter he sounds like an episode of Bevis and Butthead?Uhhh,after every sentence.Professor Butthead from Chicago!!

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Wow, not sure how you snuck that through the fiIter, but I had a good chuckle.

[MelanieMatthias]

This is really funny! ROFLMAO! You can tell that the moon is almost full, just wait till tomorrow night. Geesh!
You wittle repub trolls, I almost feel sorry for your desperate attempts. Almost. I will just keep harping as long as you do.
Please, go help someone, do something good for another human being. I promise you will feel better if you relax your anger at the fact that President Obama is a wonderful man, and put that anger toward doing good in the world. Really you will be a better person.

[ProtectTheBabies]

Obama has definitely set some records. Here's the real truth that Huff Post writers don't want you to know about:
1) Obama spends record amount of money, quadrupling the federal budget deficit in his first 100 days.
2) Obama/Pelosi Bailout wastes a record $787 Billion while unemployment hits record highs (20% in some states) months after Obama said that unemplyment wouldn;t go higher that 8% if the Bailout was passed.
3) A record high 3 Inspector Generals are fired, without notice, after all 3 bring corruption charges against Obama donors & family friends.
4) Obama breaks a record of 17 campaign promises in his first 150 days in office. The latest being his refusal to stop futures trading of oil and gasoline, which keeps gas prices up. He doesn't support hardworking Americans, he supports his Cap & Tax agenda at all costs (mainly cost to taxpayers)
5) Obama signs two bills, both at cost of over $1 TRILLION dollars, with Democrat controlled Congress/Senate only getting a RECORD 3 hours to read 10,000+ pages in each bill. Both bills are now seen as failures and waste of taxpayer money, even by Democrat leaders and Joe Biden.
6) Obama loses record 11 Million jobs during his first 150 days in office.
Attaboy, Obama - You are on the way to being the WORST President of all time. What's next?
Oh yeah - ruining our healthcare system !

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Although you are 100% correct, sometimes it's nicer to not remember everything he's messed up already... it paints a dismaI picture for the next 3.5 years.

[aftershock]

"1) Obama spends record amount of money, quadrupling the federal budget deficit in his first 100 days.

I won't read the rest because this is a flat out LIE you heard from Sean Hannity. You can only reach this number by allocating Bush's TARP funds to Obama's budget, and excluding the war costs (like Bush did) from his federal budget. Next time try not to start off dishonestly and maybe people will listen.

[DontJustFollow]

lets see - - - get elected by making hundreds of promises that are impossible to keep. check

arrive in office with zero experience, surround yourself with tax dodging yes men. check.

with democrats controlling house and senate, get congress to give you a couple trillion dollars and then ram through bills that no one bothers to read. check.

start spreading around the money and paying people off. check.

it is good to be the king.

[Weirdwriter]

It's the taste of sour grapes that keeps you spewing, innit?

[DontJustFollow]

no sour grapes. Our system is the best in the history of the world and our country gets to pick the man it wants to reside over the greatest democracy ever.

one only has to flip through the TV shows at night or glance at the magazines at the grocery store check out to understand why Obama is our President.

no there is no sour grapes. The republicans had their chance and blew it, now the democrats are running everything so we will see how their plan works.

The beauty of America and Americans is that when something is not working, they are not afraid to reverse course.

[BigAl72]

Yep. Presidents have been doing this since 1789. You should buy a U.S. History book. This country has been in debt since Independence Day.

[americanalien]

President Obama is the greatest President we've ever had. Hands down.

[Joe Caps]

All your friends say that we have yet to see the impact of his policies. How can you judge him already?

If we are seeing the impact of his policies and our country is in this shape I doubt he could considered best president ever.

[BigAl72]

It can be said the same about his critics too, right? It's to soon to blame him for failure.

[dumbosrus]

All that Congressional support, and all BO can do is raise taxes and spend gobs more than we have.

BRILLIANT!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!

[Weirdwriter]

All those Republicans in office previous to Obama and all they could do was get us into two wars, run the economy into the ditch, ignore the drowning middle class, and give us the biggest debt we'd ever had.

Now we have to put America's house put together and all you sore losers can do is gripe about how much money that's gonna cost.

Whiners.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

You do know that Dems were about even for most of Bush's term, don't you? Anything Bush did had support by dems, so don't be so quick to place blame on Repubs. It really isn't about partisanship until someone brings it up.

[joetherealist]

Boy, the folks over at Townhall must have posted a link to this story...Tro11s everywhere.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Probably more like people realizing the Iunacy that happening in our government. Being a "troII" means giving false information, or misrepresenting it. I only see that from people defending Obama.

[Weirdwriter]

That's 'cause you're holding up a mirror and seeing everything in reverse.

[jdw1981]

But....but..... Obama's backsliding on most of his campaign promises is supposedly somehow due to the non-cooperation of Congress..

Case closed. Obama is backsliding only because he weaseled his way into office, saying ANYTHING to get elected, and for no other reason.

[SonofSolomon]

"Backsliding on most of his campaign promises"? Most? Really? Which ones?

[Joe Caps]

Not to raise taxes on those earning less that $250,000. He already hit me by signing the SCHIP expansion.

He said he would post bills online for five days before signing them. I think he has yet to do this.

Signing statements.

I could go on but its quite obvious he has reneged on a multitude of issues to anybody who can lay off the kool aide once in awhile.

[NL207]

Now this is a target!

Obama promised:

--allow 5 days of public comment before signing bills.
--no revolving door lobbyists in governemnt.
--end income taxes on seniors making less than $50,000
--$3000 tax credit for companies creating jobs
--allow penalty-free harship withdrawals from IRA/401k in 2008 and 2009
--recognize Armenian genocide
--no tax increases on people making less than $250,000
--oppose earmarks
--repeal dont ask don't tell
--windfall profits tax on gas and oil
--limit agribusiness subsidies
--new tone in partisan politics
--lift cuban embargo

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Man, you really have no idea, do you? All you heard was "Change". Of course he has come through on that promise. Unfortunately, it's the change that will ruin us.

[DontJustFollow]

you can fool most of the people all of the time - - -

[Human-Being]

Of course he has to carefully pick his fights, that is why he is on the mark to be one of the most successful presidents in our history. He already showed that brilliance when he ran the most successful campaign in our history.

[Joe Caps]

If you think Obama will be able to save all our nations problems by making people like him (all he needed to do to win the election) you are in for a rude awakening.

What exactly made it the most successful campaign evah anyhow? Was it that he was able to get elected even though he has spent most of his life associating with marxists and had no experience?

Did you see the electoral map in 1980?

[DontJustFollow]

WHO ran the most successful campaign ever? Do you thnk it was Obama or the people that programmed his teleprompter? The only time he fell apart was when he went on TV and Rick Warren asked him questions that he had to answer him self - - -

Obama was the face of the most successful campaign but you are a very simple person if you believe he had any part in the planning. People like you think that Al Gore was involved in the "science" behind his global warming movie - or that Katie Couric actually in involved in researching "news" - - -

[power1]

Thank you President Obama for driving up the unemployment rate with your ill-advised, poorly planned stimulus package. The country would have been better off if you had done nothing.

[MaryanneAZ]

What is your support for your inane argument? I think we dodged a real economic disaster by what was done to bailout GM, AIG, the banks, the Stimulus, etc. It is illogical, and not supported by most of the leading economists, that "the country would have better off if you had done nothing." The job losses alone would be staggering if nothing had been done to bailout our major financial and manufacturing industries. I believe the slight uptick in unemployment last month was commensurate with the reorganization of GM. The reorganization closed factories, closed dealerships, decreased parts orders, etc. I suspect we will see a decreased number this month.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

No, I think you are confused here. What power1 is suggesting is that Obama should have done nothing, letting GM go bankrupt if they couldn't hold their own. They went bankrupt anyway, taking billions of dollars with them. The AIG outrage is also thanks to government intervention, rather than a much better "hands-off" policy.

[weatherwaxx]

Sunshine, your boy Bush wrecked the economy. Your GOP obstructionists have attacked every attempt to pass functional legislation, larding every bill with unnecessary rubbish and cutting out real change. It's amazing President Obama has been able to do as much as he has.

I don't agree with everything he's done, but thank God he beat mcPalin!

[talkitreal]

The reason some, of the infrastructure portion of the Stimulus went slow, is because the Obama Administration wanted the Governors, to avoid as many mistakes during the contract stage as possible.
For all you who do not know how large constructi­on/infrast­ructure deals are done:

1. The construction companies who want to work on the projects put in their bids, for what they are willing to do the job for - bidding takes a couple months, sometimes more, because the objeactive of the State governments in to get the best deal possible for the money.
2. After the bidding has been completed, the contracts are draw up, signed, and work begins.

The reason the Infrastructure spending is just starting to spead up now, is because many of the bidding on contracts are probley completes, and infrastructure projects are beginning all over the country: on things like: fixing roads, highways, bridges, dams, leeves, and schools .

Jobs are already being created! And will continue !

[Conservador-Rebelde]

Although most of that is true, the reality of it is that it would have happened w/o stimulus. Plus, the rate at which jobs are being "created" puts Obama's estimate at question. It's taken a little over a hundred billion to create the 150,000 jobs stimulus has credit for. At the same rate, only about 600,000 jobs will be created, rather than a couple million, as PROMISED. Plus, most of these jobs are government, not construction.

[Ivee]

I agree. Living in northern NJ, I've seen several much-needed road projects start in the last couple of weeks. And in addition to all the paperwork, there are environmental studies to be done before work can commence.

You're right -- it's a slow process. But it's not an infinite process (much as it might seem like it sometimes), and I've seen the start of some results here in Bergen County.

[Conservador-Rebelde]

"Obama On Track To Break Records With Congressional Support"
The same Congress passing billions of dollars worth of tax hikes? Oh wait, he supports that too. Anyone is free to disagree, but the climate bill is a tax hike.

From WaPo:
"Since the Reagan era, some conservatives have hoped to shrink government by “starving the beast.” Refuse to raise taxes, they figured, and eventually spending would have to fall.

It’s beginning to look as though the new team may have a similar strategy, in reverse: Increase spending, and eventually taxes will have to be raised. …

The bottom line is this: You cannot run a progressive government of the kind Obama favors by collecting only 18 percent of the gross domestic product in taxes, which has been the norm over the past 40 years. Nor can you increase the tax take to 24.5 percent of GDP — which is what Obama proposes to be spending in 2019 — simply by making the rich pay more.

But rather than level with the American people about this, or lay out a plan to raise the needed taxes, the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are putting the spending pieces of progressive government in place and apparently counting on the tax piece to fall into place later."

[rich misty]

A new GAO report [PDF] has made some news by reporting that large fractions of both U.S.-controlled and foreign-controlled corporations report no liabilities under the federal corporate income tax. In 2005, 25% of "large" U.S.-controlled corporations and 67% of all U.S.-controlled corporations reported no tax liability; foreign-controlled corporations reported no tax liability at roughly similar rates (slightly higher overall for GAO's study period).

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08957.pdf

[Conservador-Rebelde]

I don't really care about taxing corporations more, it's the personal tax increase we are about to see that bothers me. Whether or not the actual rate increases, you will pay more in gas taxes and health-care taxes.

[cyndeewi]

They are doing a better job then your President Bush! Now get with that!

[Conservador-Rebelde]

"your President Bush"? When did I ever say I agreed with him? It's nice of you to assume that there is only two sides.

[PDXTransplant]

Tro|| A|ert! Tro|| A|ert!

[LoyalOpposition]

I've gotta tell you this story: I have a friend who is elderly, but quite active in her neighborhood. Every one calls her Aunt May. Aunt May uses the computer and writes letters in addition to being seen about town still riding her bicycle. She is one smart and generous cookie. I saw her not 15 minutes ago, as I was waiting at a light, just down the street, and she leaned in and told me about this article. She was so happy, and said, "That's our man!" with as much pride as if she had given birth to him herself. She said this is only the beginning, as Obama will achieve much more to make us all forget the horrible shape this country was in when he took office. And you know what? I believe every word she says. Aunt May is a person of few words, and everyone who knows her agrees that she is never wrong. God bless Aunt May, and President Barack Obama!

[LiberalDemIda]

I like your Aunt May. She and I think alike. :-)

[DontJustFollow]

HAHAAHAHAHA Aunt May knows best. If Obamas plan works out, the whole country will be filled with Aunt Mays - riding their bikes because we have no more oil or money - smiling and waving and praising The One that gives us all our food and housing and information.

maybe ignorance IS bliss -

[PDXTransplant]

I love your story. You should tell Aunt May to blog. I would read her stories everyday. I love the elderly! They have so much to share! Thanks for the story on her. I'm serious about her blogging.

[cyndeewi]

I like your Aunt May, God bless her heart!

[Ivee]

We can learn a lot from people like your Aunt May. She sounds very wise and kind-hearted.

[The Lorax]

Tell Aunt May I said Hallelujah!

[smchp]

where is the change?
{/troll sarcasm off}