President Obama At Fundraiser: U.S. Will Go Down 'Perilous Path' If Leaders Don't Move Quickly

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press

NEW YORK -- President Barack Obama warned Monday that the United States is headed down a "perilous path" if its leaders cannot move quickly and responsibly to help people get back to work.

Obama, speaking at an exclusive Park Avenue fundraiser for his re-election and for other Democrats, promoted his plans to spur hiring and put a dent in the long-term debt. He proposes to pay for his ideas in large part by raising taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.

Republican leaders have offered strong opposition to his economic program.

`'If we don't succeed, then I think this country is going to go down a very perilous path," Obama told his audience in brief remarks in front of reporters.

He said that meant conditions would get worse for everyone, rich and poor.

Obama spoke at the home of Ralph Schlosstein and Jane Hartley. About 60 people paid $35,800 each to attend.

The president's fundraiser, the first of two in two nights, came ahead of his diplomatic meetings at the United Nations on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Obama is seeking a second term amid an increasingly dismal economy and some of the lowest poll numbers of his presidency.

He told his supporters that his mission is to keep building a thriving middle class and offering a `'big, generous" vision of America as a place of opportunity for all.

If so, he said, `'then I'm confident the American people will follow us. That's where they want to be."

Schlosstein is CEO of Evercore Partners, Inc., an investment banking advisory form, and Hartley is the CEO of the Observatory Group, an economic and political consulting firm.

Under federal law, the Obama campaign can get $5,000 of each individual contribution. The Democratic National Committee will get the balance.

 

 

Comments

[Jbran04]

10:44 AM on 09/22/2011

Obama 9-19-2011: "All that hopey changey stuff, as they say? That was real. It wasn’t something ...it was real, you could feel it. You know it. It’s still there. Even in the midst of this hardship. But it’s hard. When I was in Grant Park that night, I warned everybody this was going to be hard, this wasn’t the end it was the beginning."

Please let it be the end in 2012. For the sake of our economy, our country.

[Meldy1]

09:17 AM on 09/22/2011

To some in here commenting stay focus on the item above!!!for crying out loud......

[rhomsky]

11:55 PM on 09/21/2011

Ahhnold/Toke For President - http://www.gifbin.com/f/982973

[Jimbo2001]

10:55 PM on 09/21/2011

I heard a great quote today. "This pathetic community organizer doesn't have the organization or leadership skills to organize a block party". That continues to become more and more obvious.

[smburwick]

07:54 PM on 09/21/2011

solid centrist. I believe in progress of the individual, and not the progression of dependency on the government. What you are saying is democrat/socialist dribble.

[BarryChaLaque]

10:41 AM on 09/21/2011

obama said the unemployed couldn’t wait 14 more months for help and we had to do something right away, I agreed with him. With the idea of a double-dip recession looming and obama said that it would irresponsible not to come up with a jobs package that needed passing, I wanted to believe him

I liked obama’s payroll tax cut ideas and urged my Republican reps to play along. When obama unveiled the second half of his stimulus it became clear that this package has nothing to do with helping people right away or averting a double dip. This was a campaign speech, not a jobs bill.

It saddens me to see the direction our country has taken these past 2-1/2 years. This election, I'm torn between the need to see obama humiliated at the polls, where the final outcome cannot be denied and he and his ilk are told NO! Or the the possibly better outcome, for the short term of the country, of having him just walk away and let someone else, who might actually do something right during the next few months… take the wheel.

Either way works for me. But I don't see that he would do either. He will campaign for another term, maybe not as hard, but the risk is that he somehow manages to get enough fools to vote for him (not to mention d-e-a-d people), and then this country will be completely skr-ew-ed.

[MadCaps]

10:20 AM on 09/21/2011

Obama Inherited From Bush

Nov 5, 2008:

Worst recession since 1930's UNDER BUSH

Two inherited disastrous trillion dollar wars

Osama bin Laden alive and threatening US monthly

Stock market crash

Businesses failing daily

Massive unemployment

American automotive industry on last legs

Exploitative and expensive world inferior health care industry adding to national deficit

President Obama's Accomplishments

June 2, 2011:

Recession ended in 2009 due to government stimulus

End of combat operations in Iraq

Beginning of troop withdrawal in Afghanistan

Osama bin Laden located and eliminated

Recovered stock market

Record corporate profits

More jobs added in two years than throughout BUSH'S ENTIRE EIGHT-YEAR PRESIDENCY

Revived auto industry

Comprehensive health care reform passed for the first time in American history

PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS DONE A GREAT JOB TURNING AROUND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S DISASTROUS 8 YEAR REIN...

[Jimbo2001]

12:39 PM on 09/21/2011

Enjoy that Kool-aid.

[rhomsky]

11:59 PM on 09/21/2011

yummm............fact flavor.

[BarryChaLaque]

01:00 PM on 09/21/2011

Bush Unemployment 6.6%
obama Unemployment 9.2%
obama Underemployment 21%
obama Black Youth Unemployment 45%

Bush - Avg Annual Deficit - $304 Billion
obama - Avg Annual Deficit -$1.35 Trillion

During the Bush years, the federal government increased from 18 percent of GDP to 21 percent. The debt went up $2.5 trillion, from roughly 32 percent of GDP to 40 percent. And now, during the obama period, spending has moved even higher, to at least 24 percent of the economy, while total federal debt has ballooned to nearly 100 percent of GDP.

A consensus is growing that obama’s economic policies are not getting us out of this mess, and never will. Lawrence Kudlow explained what obama’s policies have done to voters: “Big-government stimulus never works ... All that money-printing stimulus worked to depreciate the dollar and jack-up commodity prices, especially oil and gasoline, but also food. So both companies and consumers have been punished.” Peggy Noonan went even further in her column today: “Obama inherited financial collapse, deficits, and debt. He inherited a broken political culture. These things weren't his fault. But through his decisions, he made them all WORSE.”

Yeah, obama sure has done a swell job. Economy Tanking. 47 Million people on food stamps. And more taxes on the horizon. Yeah, great job...NOT!

[Jimbo2001]

05:23 PM on 09/21/2011

It's hard to disagree with anything you say. But Left wing extremist Peggy Noonan is way off. Obama inherited a minor recession, not near as bad as the recession President Bush inherited from Clinton. President Bush fixed his, and never once said anything negative about his predecsssor. All Obama has done is blame his predecessor and make it horribly worse with his "policies".

[Under Fed yet Fed Up]

08:59 AM on 09/21/2011

It took how long for this President to realize that we have an employment problem?

[artistkatja]

07:58 PM on 09/21/2011

LOL...he's a bright one, he is lol

[Traeumen]

12:48 AM on 09/21/2011

I love how Republicans all so eager to march the US to be like China. Why don't you just immigrate here? We have all the lovely deals you like! Big corporation evades tax easily, no regulation whatsoever concerning the environment, you can pollute all you want, no one is testing the safety of the food and drink, etc etc. And we have a booming economy that is built on the poverty of a large majority of the population. It should be paradise to you.

[Jimbo2001]

09:50 AM on 09/21/2011

How outrageous can you libs be? Republicans are eager to make the US like China? That's like saying Mother Teresa was eager to be more like Pol Pot. Republicans despise the various communist dictatorships, and Democrats love them. Businesses manufacture in China and other countries for one reason only--because they can get it done cheaper, thereby providing less expensive products for their customers and taking care of their stockholders. If Obama and his handlers weren't so cozy with communism, we would simply impose field-leveling tariffs on products coming from those countries that use slave labor. That would solve the entire problem.

If liberals were simply stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that some of what they say would make sense, and maybe even support America.

[Traeumen]

09:52 PM on 09/21/2011

You don't even know what communism means. And your GOP is just like the CCP, "Everything else doesn't matter, only the GDP", pollution is fine, as long as it brings business growth - who cares if 10 years later the local residents will be dying? I mean, it is not like the wealthy is going to live where they build factories!

And China taking care of its stockholders? The joke's on you.

It would be so laughable if it won't so tragic that some people in the US are so eager to destroy what is good about America just to have some short-sighted instant gratification.

[artistkatja]

07:59 PM on 09/21/2011

...One more liberal who has no clue.

[dave0331]

09:31 PM on 09/20/2011

IMPEACH THIS AH and get some people capable of leading this great Country.

[Indep Votr]

08:32 PM on 09/20/2011

Obama is only concerned about keeping his own job. The Campaigner in Chief has done nothing but LIE, FAIL, and BLAME for three years, and he's in full campaign mode again.

International laughingstock, miserable Failure Obama.

[Jimbo2001]

08:34 PM on 09/20/2011

And this is incredibly saddening. What he is doing to our country is abominable.

[Only Facts Please]

08:48 PM on 09/20/2011

LMAO The laughingstock was Bush. Obama is just using his position to bring the government together to make things happen. Instead of playing games, he has stood to his convictions even as the Republican Congress has shot him down. You can say what you want about Obama, but you have to admit that the 'war' that exists in our government ISN'T about what is best for the American people. It is a testimony about what one side would do to gain ultimate control over the other. Otherwise, we would be debating specific economic issues NOT who has the most tar and feathers. Think about it......

[Jimbo2001]

08:57 PM on 09/20/2011

No! The "war" is about the following:

Do we follow the Constitution, with small government, low taxes, and free markets, as patriotic conservatives want?

Or do we "fundamentally change America", with larger bureaucracy, high taxes, and government control, as Obama and the Dems want.

The election last November was about NOT compromising with the liberals, because every compromise with libs is a move toward socialism, albeit a smaller move than they want. Anyone who compromises will be voted out.

[artistkatja]

09:03 PM on 09/20/2011

....Keep paddling down your marshmallow river in your graham cracker boat, if it helps you feel better. Whatever eases your pain!

[cittidude2]

08:19 PM on 09/20/2011

I think we are already down a perlious path. We have a 15% poverty rate nationwide­, all borders are like wet rice paper, China threatens us every turn. Our Politician­s are more insulated and self indulgent. Cancer is on the rise. We have acts that take away every civil right as an American, some even against the Geneva convention­. (Yes, its not wartime..e­ven worse.) Our "official" unemployme­nt rate is 9.1%, pushing 19-30% in area. There are tens of thousands of people homeless or face homelessne­ss. Like the 50-60's McCarthy regarding Communism, you now label people terrorists to shut them up. Hyper-infl­ation and the threat of the dollar no longer being the world standard is very real.

TELL US, HOW MORE "PERILOUS" CAN IT GET??????

[Corrie Seames Caldwell]

08:09 PM on 09/20/2011

Oh another note....I hate it when it starts being almost dark at 7:00pm. :-(

[DRGClarke]

07:35 PM on 09/20/2011

The Perilous Path? You mean the one he's taken us down? The divisiveness he's done to America? The class warfare/ he;s done like no other president has ever done Left or Right. He has everyone hating each other. Nice job and he;'s talking about what PAth OBAMA LANE?

[luvobama]

07:37 PM on 09/20/2011

The only people that hate and are divisive, are you Swamp People.

Your Fox talking points are sooooo yesterday.

Obama 2012

[Corrie Seames Caldwell]

07:39 PM on 09/20/2011

DRG made no personal insults, you called him and anyone who agrees with him, Swamp People are you're living and inclusive? Wow. To quote a great movie, "I do not think it means, what you think it means."

[Orange22]

08:07 PM on 09/20/2011

you must be part of the 50% that do not pay taxes, anyone else knows that black or white this man is no good for USA

[artistkatja]

09:07 PM on 09/20/2011

You hit the nail right on the head. Obama rules by chaos and confusion. There is more racial unrest now than there was in the sixties. There is more civil uprising. Obama's road is leading us to Deadman's Curve.

[Chatt]

07:11 PM on 09/20/2011

The US has been going down a perilous path ever since Obama got voted in.

[luvobama]

07:38 PM on 09/20/2011

Yeah.  What with you teapartiers, aka, Swamp People, our country has never been this embarrassed.

The rest of the world thinks you people are beyond ignorant.

[Corrie Seames Caldwell]

07:44 PM on 09/20/2011

There's some more of that open-minded tolerance we've heard so much about!

[Jimbo2001]

08:38 PM on 09/20/2011

Typical liberal name-calling with no facts.

[Only Facts Please]

08:51 PM on 09/20/2011

We have started this perilous path the minute corporations were given free reign to do as they please. While Obama has spent far too much time trying to get the two sides to agree for the greater good, I think he has come to the decision that he has to fight fire with fire.

[From my cold dead hands]

10:17 PM on 09/20/2011

Whats the matter, do you have a government job and are afraid of losing it and actually having to WORK for a living when we start cutting back on the size of government?