Rigell questions Obama’s knowledge of economics
By JR Hoeft | Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 | PolicyQuietly doing due diligence in his first few months of office, Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) has not always taken the easy road on some exceptionally difficult votes. As one of the few Virginia legislators to oppose the Continuing Resolutions on the grounds that they actually didn’t fulfill the GOP promise made in last year’s campaign of cutting $100 billion, Rigell had the backbone in his votes to not allow the military to be pawns in the hand of the administration.
Regardless, the 2nd District Congressman is starting to get fired-up.
A tireless worker, who has already had more town halls, to my recollection, than his predecessor, Rigell penned some thoughts on the president’s capricious economic theories:
Yesterday, President Obama made some remarks about the economy and the pace at which jobs are coming back to the market. It was a revelation of the economic views held by our Economist-in-Chief. When asked about the disappointing job numbers released last week, he said:
“There are going to be times where we are making progress, but people are still skittish and nervous, and the markets get skittish and nervous. And so they pull back because they’re still thinking about the traumas of just two and a half years ago.”
No, Mr. President. America’s entrepreneurs and job creators are not looking to the past. They are looking to the future. And all they see is a perfect storm of uncertainty.
They see an Environmental Protection Agency that is not a partner in job creation, but a regulatory bully who won’t consider the economic impact of new regulations.
They see a slipping dollar and realize the money they have today won’t go as far tomorrow.
They see a failed stimulus that has added a trillion dollars to our debt.
They see a nationalized healthcare system that will continue to eat up our national budget.
And they see a mountain of national debt and know that if our leaders can’t agree to substantive spending cuts, America’s future is at serious risk.
Mr. President, you do have a point: uncertainty is the enemy of job creation. But it is YOUR policies that are dragging down the greatest economic engine the world has ever known: the American entrepreneur.
Kudos to Mr. Rigell for sounding the clarion call and standing up to the administration and saying what needs to be said.
It’s growing tiresome that only a select few in Congress are saying, proposing, and VOTING the right way. Hopefully more of the Virginia Congressional delegation agree with Rigell and are ready to carry the same fight.
America, and Virginia, are ready for a unified Republican party – talking, as is Rigell, in commonsense, bright, bold colors. The last thing we need is leadership going purple.
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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24 Responses to "Rigell questions Obama’s knowledge of economics"
Thank you Scott Rigell for calling out the President in a way that the mainstream media never will!
Scott is spot on, and today Obama started blaming Euro Zone for our economic problems. And then Obama announced supporting a bailout for the debt crisis in Greece? He’s either in a huge psychodrama of denial or he wants us to fail.
The more I know Scott Rigell the more I not only respect him, but feel he was called for our times to lead our government.
I will take it a step further however.
We as Americans need to change our way of thinking. We are pioneers, adventurers, problem solvers, inventors, and we know how to fight together for each other, it’s in our DNA.
Our country grew strong, not by big government, but by mom and pop shops, small businesses hiring local people to support the local economy that paid taxes and fed their families.
A message to big corporations. If you only sell wholesale and do business with brick and mortar buildings change your rules. If an entrepreneur wants to start a business working out of their home, let them pay cash in advance, (no risk to you), and let America be what made us great and get on it’s feet again.
Small businesses need to grow. This disaster won’t turn around just with our politicians. It will take all of us working together and finding solutions.
Scott Rigell, Jeff McWaters, and other business minded leaders know what will turn this economy around. But all of us Americans need to remember our DNA and work together. It will take more than the government to turn our situation around.
JR says: “America, and Virginia, are ready for a unified Republican party – talking, as is Rigell, in commonsense, bright, bold colors. The last thing we need is leadership going purple.”
IIRC It was Obama in the 2008 campaign who talked on and on about purple. The point is that the current Dem party is loaded with pols who cannot be trusted to work toward principled compromise and Obama is the prime example. He ran a totally deceptive campaign and operates in the light or when necessary “under the radar” to impose coercive policies and suppress opposition.
It is ironic that Repubs who call him “naive” when dealing with foreign adversaries act just as naively with him. (I hope they are not being similarly deceptive.) I include such things as the Ryan plan in the general naivete because many observers told them exactly how the Dems were going to attack it. If you go ahead under such circumstances then at least the prudent pol would prepare an effective response and marshal resources to defend the position. The deer in the headlights look I see on Paul Ryan doesn’t lend much confidence that was done. Instead the few Repubs who voted against it look like they have more commonsense than the rest. Unfortunately this flap has weakened them in the debt limit fight. If the leadership caves on that I don’t know what will happen.
a perfect storm of uncertainty.
This is a truly excellent choice of words. This is an incredibly important point, one that we should all be talking about constantly. Capitalism only works when businesspeople can make informed decisions about where, when, and how to deploy capital. When the markets have been completely taken over by the whim of the regulators and the Federal Reserve, it’s impossible to make informed decisions and capitalism falters.
The words are those of a businessperson. Does Rigell have a business background? I hope he’s not just another sniveling attorney “poser” using familiar words to deceive us.
Kathy: “It will take more than the government to turn our situation around.”
It will take less government to turn this thing around.
Regretfully, Rigell once again shows that we have come to a sad state of affairs in which a once proud and capable republican party has been effectively taken over by Grover Norquist and his no tax pledge. Having sold themselves to the man who said the purpose of an elected official is to cut the arms and legs off government so it can be drowned in a bathtub, we now see what he means. Even the removal of tax credits for corporations who pay no income tax is sure to place a target on the back of any republican office holder.
Recently, Norquist compared Senator Coburn, formerly an active member of the gang of six, as follows: Coburn is..”a malignant cell in the body politic. So, said Norquist, we use Chemo and radiation to protect all the health cells around it so it doesn’t grow and metastasize.” Frankly, how any one individual, especially of his ilk, can have that much influence on a Party once the home of great political leaders, is far beyond my understanding. Norquist is the enforcer that all republicans fear the most, and frankly, that means he is the heart and soul of the republican party.
So anyone who is surprised or pleased by Rigell’s criticism of the President, who, with some members of Congress, is trying to deal responsibly with the deepest recession in U.S. history, should take note that Rigell should get a penalty for piling on, not a commendation for knowing a thing about fiscal policy. He simply repeats the Norquist insired Party line, that in one decade, took us from budget surplus to deep deficits. What we need now is clear thinking and action, not more Norquist/Cantor/Rigell.
Mike,
On the contrary, painting Rigell with the same brush as Norquist is too much of a stretch. And, BTW, I don’t think that Rigell is as much questioning Obama’s knowledge of economics as he is calling him out on failed policies of every description, not just taxation. The President knows exactly what he is doing–ushering in an economic recovery that will result in higher taxes, more government regulatory control, and greater dependence by the citizens on government largess. Such a recovery will take longer and be more painful than a free market approach, but in the end it will lead to a more leftist (but not Socialist) state of relations between the Federal government and the people. It will make large corporations more subservient to the government (witness the auto industry), it will facilitate huge transfers and redistribution of wealth, and it will promote a permanent Democratic majority.
This is much, much bigger than just a policy dispute over taxation. That is why we must elect a Republican president in 2012, despite the best efforts of the GOP so far to rally behind mostly unelectable demagogues.
Mike, you are turning into a BD “green” contributor by recycling your old comments again and again. JR should give you an award for commenter who repeats themselves the most.
Well HisROC, I will try not to repeat myself. I do take issue with your criticism of regulatory control. Frankly, anyone who uderstands why the international finanacial system nearly collapsed agrees that deregulation of banks went much too far, and we will pay the cost of that mistake for a decade. Of course, the Wall Street fat cats are right back where they were, salaries fully restored, but that doesn’t mean we should allow them to run rough shod over Main Street and our economy again. And yes, new revenue will absolutely be needed to reduce the deficit, as will cuts in government expenditures. Any politician, like Cantor/Rigell, who disagrees is simply in a state of denial.
Mike,
You may not be repeating yourself but you are definitely contradicting yourself. You cite the lack of financial regulatory controls for the near collapse of international banking, but claim that under Obama the Wall Street fat cats are back to business as usual. If you really believe that, then why are you supporting Obama and not the Republicans? Similarly, you claim that cuts in government expenditures are as necessary as revenue increases. However, when the Paul Ryan plan to reform Medicare was unveiled, your Democrats pulled out all the stops on a Mediscare campaign and derailed any and all plans to rein in government expenditures on these unsustainable entitlement programs.
We have three equal branches of government and it has simply taken too long for the effects of financial regulation to take place. Once the law passed, the regulations had to be written, and the banks have done their best to derail that process, witness the vote yesterday in the Senate. Frankly, I do support changes to entitlements, especially cost control for Medicare and Medicaid, and believe defense must be on the table as well. The trick is to balance these imperatives in the short run to make sure we don’t push th economy back into recession, because robust growth, coupled with cuts and increases in revenue, are all part of the formula. Frankly, if both sides would stop lobbing hand grenades, this could get done.
“Frankly, if both sides would stop lobbing hand grenades, this could get done.”
I could not agree with that statement more. And I am equally convinced that it will not happen in our lifetimes.
Mike, you are a competent businessman capable of stating the obvious but you are unwilling. I know you are truly smarter than you let people believe. The policies and economic agenda of the Obama administration are proven failures. By any reasonable assessment, you would be brought before the board and fires from Runnymede if you made those same errors unless you had some special deal made in advance. Am I suggesting Obama has some special deal in place? Yes.. Yes I am suggesting that. He is a tool for progressives and as long as they can they will use the leverage to impose their economic vision.
Failed policies of the Obama Administration.. Say it 3 times Mike Obama = Failure, Obama = Failure, Obama = Failure..
Hows that obamacare waiver coming along Mike?
Frankly James, it is frightening to me that any business person who understands the role of the CEO could say what you have said. An incoming leader must deal with the circumstances as he/she finds them, not as he/she wished them to be. Obama was elected after the decade that it took to go from surplus to a fiscal crisis, the proportion of which was only seen during the Depression. His role is to restore our economy and our nation to fiscal sanity based upon a firm foundation of investment to create the conditions for prosperity. That process in ongoing, based upon real circumstances, not phony, inflated economics. It is taking longer than expected, but the trend is positive and in the right direction so long as the House does not create another debacle.
“The (national) debt really added up $75 trillion in 2010 and is on track to hit $99 trillion this year.” — Scott Rigell
FALSE.
And THIS car dealership owner turned Republican place holder knows more about economics?
Oh ye who know so little about what passes for accounting these days.
The “$99 Trillion” is all of fed dot gov debt plus the NPV of federal government obligations using GAAP.
I won’t explain what GAAP and NPV mean. If I have to explain what NPV and GAAP mean, your opinion doesn’t count because you are unqualified to participate in this discussion. Which, I suspect, is the case.
This is also a perfect illustration of why economics, at least true capitalist economics, isn’t taught in government schools anymore. People who don’t know anything can be counted on to accept the meaningless, fact-stripped party line that is shoveled at them by the co-opted / owned media.
It is generally accepted that, using GAAP, the NPV of federal obligations goes up by about $5 Trillion per year. Government-apologist economists (on taxpayer-subsidized salaries at major universities) say that it is wrong to use GAAP for governments, since they can print money and change laws, radically altering the NPV of their future obligations. While this may be true in raw terms, one must ask what the consequences for government will be when the fact of nonpayment of benefits asserts itself, or what will happen should the Fed resort to the nuclear printing press option, which is what I personally expect to happen.
If Rigell got from $75 to $99 in one year, I have no idea how he did that.
Mike:
We have three equal branches of government
Yes, and Schumer says they’re these: “We have a House, we have a Senate, we have a President.”
Can’t post links, Google “Youtube Sen. Schumer on the Three Branches of Government ”
restore our economy and our nation to fiscal sanity based upon a firm foundation of investment to create the conditions for prosperity.
Obama is doing everything he can to destroy capitalism. It’s deliberate, and obviously so. I give you:
1. The war on energy production
2. The GM and Chrysler senior secured debtholder debacle
3. Obamacare
4. The ongoing national debt debacle
5. The drumbeat for more financial regulation
6. The drumbeat for higher taxes
7. Radical environmentalists at the EPA
No one in their right minds would try to build a factory here. Jobs = McDonalds. Plus, I suppose, voting for government benefits to make your life tolerable on such low wages.
Well Jamie, perhaps you are not aware that high value manufacturing is enjoying a resurgence in the U.S., despite your assertion to the contrary. Recently, here in Hampton Roads, two firms involved in that have expanded their operations by a million SF each, and they could have built those plants anywhere in the world. Frankly, it is important to separate out the republican drum beat of gloom and disaster, from the real facts that the recovery is in progress. As a pragmatist, operating a business, the last thing I want to see is a repeat of the Bush disaster that created the Great Recession from which we have yet to fully recover.
“An incoming leader must deal with the circumstances as he/she finds them, not as he/she wished them to be.” That is a problem Mike. The incoming leader created an agenda that I cannot rationalize as anything other than a viable attempt to take us down so a new socialist state can be built from the ashes.. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/china-ratings-house-says-us-defaulting-report-054309883.html
Yeah, keep on denying Mike. This is for real. Yeah we are no longer heading for the edge of the cliff.. we are here. You left wingers want to commit mass suicide but the right is not.. If you really believe in your own bullshit fine but you are pulling us with you since we are joined at the hip.
And Mike, you brought up a good point.. Jobs markets are improving in states conservative republican governors like ours along with Texas!
Bob McDonnell for President! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Draft-Bob-McDonnell-for-President-in-2012/182559595128064
Frankly, your attempt to politicize economic development is simply ridiculous. All Governors stive to attract investment. Most of the companies announced by McDonnell were cultivated in the Kaine administration, and most of the ones cultivated by McDonnell will be announced on his successors watch. We just announced a firm locating in HR that we first talked to 10 years ago. My point is, economic development is team sport, Bill Bolling and his attempts to take all the credit aside.
Mike,
I am delighted to learn that additional SF of plant space has been added in high value manufacturing in Hampton Roads. How many jobs is that, and do they constitute “resurgence”? I am not pooh poohing, we don’t want jobs making sneakers, we want high-value manufacturing (so does everyone else).
Did Obama have something to do with this, or was it done in spite of him? South Carolina wanted a Boeing plant, but NLRB tried to say “No.”
I’m looking at the Virginia data and national manufacturing employment data I can find and I am not seeing anything that looks like a resurgence. I hope we’re not talking about second-derivative effects here, as in the slowing down of the rate of losses = “resurgence”? There’s a lot of that kind of happy-talk coming from the left now.
I’d be happy for you to prove me wrong. Are these firms producing for the export market? That would be awesome. The wealth-producing sectors are the only ones that can lead the way out. Government stimulus and other (consumer) borrowing is crap, especially since the marginal productivity of debt is now negative. Wealth cannot be redistributed until it is first produced. Even you guys know that much.
Mike, doing what’s in our nation’s best economic interests is not what is best for Obama’s political interests. End of discussion.
It is good that Congressman Scott Rigell gave his beliefs before being elected and went to Washington and stayed with his beliefs! As far as the recession why has it been the slowest recovery from a recession in the last 100 years and at the same time been the highest spending and defict rates in history? Why is the President’s fifth economic advisor since he took office quitting? As far as that goes why have so many of the President’s staff quit since he took office. Except the unelected, unapproved, and uncupable CRAZ’s? How that foreign policy and/or lack of coherent foreign policy working out?
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