According to the AP, Secretary of Defense Gates has fired replaced the commanding general in Afghanistan. Gates reportedly said we need “fresh thinking” in the theater, but, like the AP, I wonder if this had anything to do with it.
Even with 24/7 covering fire from the MSM, Obama can’t tolerate civilian casualties on this kind of scale and remain the anti-Bush. And it won’t matter that the Taliban were probably using the civilians as human shields, and may have murdered many themselves with hand grenades.
Chalk up another one under Obama’s bus. [For an alternate analysis, go here.]
Well, this should come as no surprise:
The director of the Congressional Budget Office today updated his projections for the budget and economic outlook and is now anticipating a $1.8 trillion deficit this year, and $1.4 trillion in 2010.
This is up from CBO director Douglas W. Elmendorf’s January 2009 projection of a $1.2 trillion deficit this year. In short, the US government is borrowing 50 cents for every dollar it spends.
The new projected deficit is four times the 2008 deficit, which was a record high for its time….
You may have seen this graphic bouncing around the blogosphere:
This isn’t surprising, either:
Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under President Bill Clinton and advised the Obama campaign, said on Sunday that the rate of growth would have to be higher — 4.5 percent — to reverse rising unemployment….
President Obama’s chief economics forecaster said on Sunday that the country was not likely to see positive employment growth until 2010, even if the economy began to grow later this year.
Speaking on C-SPAN, Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said that she expected the G.D.P. to begin growing in the fourth quarter of this year. Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, made a similar prediction last week.
But Ms. Romer also said that she expected unemployment to rise even after the economy turns, saying that the G.D.P. has to grow at a rate of about 2.5 percent before unemployment will fall. Before that happens, she said, it is “unfortunately pretty realistic” that the unemployment rate could reach 9.5 percent. A reasonable estimate for the G.D.P.’s growth rate in 2010, she said, is three percent.
Talk about lowering expectations! We just got done hearing Obama take credit for saving 150,000 jobs — which his administration never documented. Now we’re hearing that the stimulus package demanded by Obama and passed over near-unanimous Republican objections won’t actually make any difference at all. The cure, Obama and his team now admit, is private-sector growth.
Finally, there’s this:
The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration is cutting the Department of Defense’s recruiting budget by $800 million, or 11%, and the budget for enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses by $338 million, or 26%.
As the pundits keep saying, we’re in the very best of hands….
Mike
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