Morning Read: North Country lawmakers in retreat on Obama, nuke power
Congressmen Bill Owens and Chris Gibson are both doing a bit of backpedaling this week on issues once near and dear to their hearts. For Owens, it is his allegiance to President Barack Obama that is now in play, as the Watertown Daily Times reports.
“My view of this is that the election is going to come down to the economy and who has the better jobs plan,” Mr. Owens said. “That’s ultimately what people are concerned about. I’m going to wait and see what everybody comes forward with.”
That’s a remarkable posture for one of the few members of congress who, arguably, arrived in Washington on Barack Obama’s coattails. Owens won his first (special) election when the tide of Obamamania was still running high.
The Democrat from Plattsburgh still offered guarded praise for the president.
“I think he’s done a good job under very, very difficult circumstances. I think that, again, what I would have changed is the emphasis on the working activity inside the administration.”
Of course, now the president’s poll numbers are plummeting, as sour economic news continues…
Meanwhile, the Glens Falls Post Star is reporting that Rep. Chris Gibson is backing away from his embrace of a new nuclear power plant in his district, which stretches from Poughkeepsie to Saranac Lake.
“After I studied this in detail, it was clear to me that where we can make an impact at the federal, state and local level is with transmission,” Gibson said during an interview at his Glens Falls district office on Monday.
Limited transmission capacity, which causes connectivity congestion in transmitting electricity to and around the region, is a large contributor to high electric costs locally, economic development officials have said.
“So if you were to build a plant, and you don’t have a means to convey it, you are nowhere,” Gibson said.
Nuclear power was one of Gibson’s signature issues during his campaign, and in the months that followed his victory. But then the tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima reactor and the momentum for nuke power in the US faltered.
The Republican from Kinderhook says he still supports construction of reactors in southern states.
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“My view of this is that the election is going to come down to the economy and who has the better jobs plan,” Mr. Owens said.
Well, so far the Republican candidates are all on the ‘reduced regulation combined with more tax breaks for the rich and corporations’ bandwagon. Now we learn that along with the 700 billion in TARP the Fed lent 1.2 trillion to corporations by late 2008, a grand total of 1.9 trillion in help to the richest part of the economy. Last I looked they weren’t doing much on their part of the “trickle down” equation so I fail to see how more of the same will be a game changer.
I don’t see anyone on the political horizon that could do any better than the current administration and, although what Obama has achieved (in the face of tremendous resistance) is less than we might like, I think it would be bad to change horses at this point so while Owens may be looking for another mount it will take more than the trash talk of the current crop of wanna-be presidential candidates to get my vote.
Is this just a precursor to Hillary’s “What Did I Tell You?” tour?
I would have hoped that Mr. Owens could have crafted something better than this statement.
Actually, the Republicans are doing a worse job on the job front. Actually, both the Republicans and the Democrats are doing a lousy job on the job front because both continue to sell the lie about jobs.
The lie, involves two points.
One, because of continued advances in automation and computerization there just isn’t the need for as many workers to do the work.
Two, the only way government can create jobs is by spending money on building and rebuilding the infrastructure which would require either a bigger debt or higher taxes.
Pick your poison and swallow.
I would say that things are going just about exactly the way that Republicans want them to. We are immersed in endless debate and recrimination about all of the things that really don’t matter right now. Nothing is going to get better until the 14 million middle class people who are out of work get jobs and become tax payers and consumers again. The Republicans have no ideas about what to do with the jobs problem, but as long as they can keep everyone distracted with budget stuff and debt ceiling stuff, (stay tuned for the constitutional amendment fight), nobody seems to notice that they have no ideas about job creation. They would dearly love to hold off on that discussion until about next February or MArch, when it is fairly safe that Obama will not get any turn around on the issue in time for the elections. It’s no different with health care; they have no ideas beyond cutting what exists and going back to having nothing. It’s not about solutions, it’s about horse races and party first.
I am not a fan of the current Republican mix, but lets face it you really have to be a true believer to think Obama has done well with the economy. Poverty way up, unemployment way up, GDP way down, the deficit way up, I mean this guy made a LOT of promises. At best he is ineffectual with a good heart. I am not sure another one of these phony jobs bus tours are going to get it done for him or the economy. We don’t need another “program”” we need fundamental change in the business, tax and regulatory environment.
The Republicans have more ideas than Obama does right now. If unemployment is above 9% at election time he must go.
Anyone who truly thinks the Republicans have more ideas on how to improve the economy has to be kidding. Tax cuts for the wealthy? Cuts to social programs with nothing significant to defense, Medicare and Social Security? More bunk on Trickle Down economic theory? Have I named all of the ideas yet?
As long as Americans believe government can save them, they will be disappointed.
“The Republicans have more ideas than Obama does right now.”
Really? Can you name some, Mervel? Besides the same ideas that we’ve heard for the past 20 years or so?
I’m disappointed in the Obama administration but he has accomplished some significant achievements given he’s had absolutely no cooperation from the Republicans.
1)stabilized and brought the economy back from the abyss (even if it’s still very stagnant, he arguably did prevent it from imploding)
2)saved millions of jobs in the auto-industry with the bailout of GM and Chrysler
3) Ended “don’t ask don’t tell”
4) Started the process of ending the Iraq war (not nearly enough for me personally)
5) Lived up to his campaign promise of concentrating on the Afghan war (although I personally think it’s time to end our presence there)
6) Made the extremely risky decision to kill Osama Bin Laden
7) Whether you agree with the end results (I don’t), he did make significant reforms with our healthcare system, something no previous president has been successful at achieving.
This, by the way, in essentially two years time. There’s certainly more issues I think he could have undertaken, but given the Republicans refusal to cooperate, he actually has some significant successes. Imagine what he could have achieved had the Dems. had control of both houses of Congress (remember the Senate never had the 60 Dem seats needed to control it)?
Mervel,
There is probably a scientific term for it, but the time delay on both sides of the pendelum swing that is our Government is the reasons the hurt Bush did doesn’t fully take hold untill well into Obama’s administration, (and maybe longer) as well as any good or bad the current administration does will not be felt for years to come.
This lag is what we are dealing with now, supporters of Obama are too dissapointed and impatient for change, they will undue everything with their lack of pragmatism.
Bush slowly but surely ratcheted us into where we are now, and there is no quick relase to remove the damage.
He was nothing but a complete failure on all fronts and history will prove it.
There is nothing any elected, or current President can or could do that would or will, in an overnight sensation, pull this country out.
When you totally reverse all engines on an aircraft carrier, how long does it take to stop, never mind begin it’s reverse momentum. And then the issue of is it the right direction or recourse.
That’s whats going on in our Government now
I don’t know about an aircraft carrier, but a typical ship on the St. Lawrence River will take just short of a mile in full reverse to come to a stop.
The proof is in the pudding this guy is failing. If he can’t do anything about anything than he should just stay on his golf vacation; after all the damage Bush did cannot be undone. The Bush excuse seems to be the campaign theme for the next 20 years or maybe 40 years? Maybe there really is no need to even elect any President because the impacts of Bush just overshadow everything and will never end.
How can anyone run on increased poverty and 16% real unemployment?
Hillary in 2012 would be the best option for this country, this guy is in over his head.
Mervel,
I’m no apologist for Obama as I’m disappointed in him as well, but do you really think he’s the cause of 16% unemployment and increased poverty rates? What do you expect any president to do in two years when dealing with the greatest economic retraction since the Great Depression? Seriously, what would Hillary or McCain have done differently that would have changed the state of our economy at present? Truth be told, the president, any president, is pretty limited (especially with our current do nothing Congress) on what he or she can do to boost the economy. Fiscal policy, even if it’s the right policy for that particular situation, has limited impact and takes years to have an effect on an economy as large as ours. Especially in the case of unemployment rates and actual growth in GNP. And again, what Republican ideas were you referring to in your earlier post?
Clapto/Haynes,
you beat me to the pump.
..and Merval it may indeed take twenty years to undue Bush’s effect. In fact the length of time to get out from under his huge pile of “poo” he left us will in effect be his judge.
I’m not appologizing for Obama, but i’ll defend him to an extent.
Never voted for him for Pres.
I voted for Hillary in the Primary because i wanted to see a woman’s aproach to fixing the mess in politics, in general. I believe a woman President would have been a little more domestic, if i can be so chauvinistic. Now that Pallin and Bachman are in the pool, i’m re-thinking my line of thought.
McCain was never a thought, I’m done with ex, or retired Military Presidents for awhile.
Don’t even get me going on Trump……..
I do not think our President is the cause of this economic misery.
I just don’t think he knows what to do and is the wrong person at the wrong time. This is why I think he has essentially failed.
I think he can still come back he still has a little time but I don’t think he has the ability. For example we need good jobs, one industry that is going great guns is energy, the North Dakota oil boom can’t find enough workers and it is a long way from over, we need to really look at things of that nature, for whatever reason this president can’t do it or won’t do it. Why isn’t he ordering the change of all US government vehicles over to Natural gas for example? There is a bill in congress right now that Boone Pickens is pushing that would target our trucking fleets to give them an incentive to make the move to natural gas. It just seems like he has all of these “little” ideas, we need real ideas and big ideas.
I would take my chances and vote for T. Boone Pikens for President in a heartbeat, but he’s too smart to want the job– which was my first criticism of Obama, being—who in their right mind would even want this job?
Good point.