'Tard of the Week - President George W. Bush

Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Seriously, has this guy even read the Constitution?

As popular as President-Elect Obama is in some quarters, as quickly as he's bringing his cabinet together to address the issues that will be his responsibility on January 20, 2009, I have news for you, GWB: You're still the president.

That means you don't get to prance around in a Peruvian poncho, ducking and dodging responsibility for taking action in our current economic crisis. You don't get to ask the incoming Obama administration for "advice" in some strange attempt to get out of your responsibilities early. You claim to have some historical connection to Harry Truman - well then, man up and abide by Truman's mantra.

Here's the scoop, you 'tard - Barack Obama has no authority. NONE. Under our Constitution, (a document I believe he's read, being a Constitutional Law professor and all), he can't do shit until he's sworn in. That means the buck stops with you. Get off your ass and make some decisions. You've already fucked up your legacy beyond any saving, and trying to lay low while the economy collapses in an attempt to make this Obama's problem is beneath even you.

Get to deciding, deciderer.

18 comments:

mattw said...

Well said. I can't wait till that 'tard is out of office.

WendyB_09 said...

my countdown to change clock is quivering with anticipation...it's not soon enough in my book.

Not that all this change will find me a job any faster in the wreckage of W's economy, but it's nice to hope.

I'm off line until Sunday night... no 'puters at the 'rents, they be old school...and I'm way to lazy this go round to drag a laptop and do dialup!!
Have a great Thanksgiving.

WendyB_09

John the Scientist said...

Eh. Rushing things will only add to more industries that can't or won't compete asking for handouts.

I want the debate to continue, to get everything aired before action is taken. If your business practices were sound, you can weather a little more storm, if not, you were going to fail in the medium term, anyway. Screw the Big 3. And their Union. Seriously, screw 'em. It won't be "millions" of jobs if they go under (as one talk show host was saying on Friday). Yes, it make take a few months for new advertisers to step into the open slots on radio and TV,and yes the price for ads may slip a bit, but it's not as if Toyota is going to stop selling cars in the US, or advertising them. The faster Bush acts, the more shit like that is going to creep in.

Roosevelt prolonged the depression by a good 3 - 4 years with his ill-advised policied (I've got to check "The Forgottten Man" for the exact number.

There is a real possibility of hobbling our economy with Government interference and presence on actual boards as a major shareholder that does no good (as opposed to regulatory influence that is necessary).

Take your time George. Obama, too, but I think we'll have a much better idea of what's going on by Jan. 20.

Chris said...

Can you picture him, sulking in the oval office while his advisors say to him:

"Mr. President, you are still running the show. You need to at least act like you care."

Bush: "But I don't wanna be president anymore! Besides, people like Obama better!"

Talk about a lame duck...

Janiece said...

Wendy, you too.

But I have to say, even though I think W has been a terrible president, the economic collapse cannot be totally laid on his doorstep. There's plenty of blame to go around on this one.

John, I'm actually a bit on the fence on this one. While I believe that any government money spent on bail-outs must be absolutely transparent, and should include an auditing schedule performed by forensic accountants, I don't think it's smart to just "let the chips fall where they may."

Because it's easy to say "screw 'em" when your own financial future doesn't depend on the government taking action.

In other words, it's not just an economic issue - it's a moral one, too. I'm not comfortable leaving all those middle-class people out in the cold.

But the executives? Yeah, fuck 'em.

mattw said...

Janiece, have you seen this?

Steve Buchheit said...

Hey, strange minds think alike or something, just did the exact same post.

And John, okay, we let GM hit the skids and go bankrupt (after all, can't break the Union without government help). Besides dropping Michigan off the cliff, there's all those pensioners. Guess where they go? They go here to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp, notice that URL is a ".gov" address. Think it won't affect you? While the pensioners will get less than they were promised (throwing a lot of people on the street on back on payrolls that don't have enough jobs as it is) the tax payers will have to foot the extra money, because PBGC isn't fully funded and is struggling under all the airline defaults. Your tax money at work.

Steve Buchheit said...

Oh, and don't forget the increased Medicare and Medicaid expenses because those retirees won't have their private plan anymore and many have work related injuries.

Janiece said...

Thanks, Matt. Hehe. I love The Onion.

Steve, we crack us up. :)

John the Scientist said...

Steve - and so we indefinitely subsidize? Why don't the Japanese carmakers need that? Because Japanese forklift operators do not make $80,000 per year. UAW ones do. Screw that Union.

Take the hit now and renormalize, don't let GM go on making more pensioners that will eventually wind up on the Dole when they finally rack up too many losses to absorb.

Pittsburgh took a similar hit when the mills closed, and it's now thriving. Michigan needs to re-think its future, pronto.

Random Michelle K said...

And WV took multiple hits when various coal mine operators went under, and now all those men and women who took pay cuts and worked long hours so they would have retirement and health care into their retirement now have nothing.

Those men and women sacrificed health and sometimes life for their companies, and are now left with nothing.

I love my state, and I am glad we are better off financially right now than the rest of the country, but I would never hold up the way retiree pensions and health benefits treated as an example for anyone, unless it's an example of what not to do.

Now the state is responsible for the health care of these individuals, because Medicaid picks up what Medicare doesn't cover. And retired miners are not an inexpensive population to care for.

Whatever happens, the population of the US will care for these people. The difference is whether we'll be paying for routine/maintenance care, or whether we'll be paying for acute/emergency care.

Eric said...

Sure Janiece, if you're going to follow the Constitution then, yeah, GWB is still "in charge."

But honestly, after nearly eight years of this crap, I'm thrilled if the grown-ups are coming home early to send the kids to bed and start cleaning up. If the President wants to ask the President-Elect for advice or even clear out a corner of the Oval Office for him, hell, why not? In retrospect we might have been better off if Bush had joined Cheney in a "secret, undisclosed location" years ago.

In fact, I'll even add an open letter:

Dear Mr. President: you know, I'll bet that brush has been piling up in Crawford, and I heard the First Lady wants to move to Houston or Dallas anyway, so maybe you could get the place cleaned up so it can be put on the market (it'll need to look as nice as possible, with the housing market where it is). Mr. Obama and his people are all pretty smart--just leave the keys to Air Force One and the football and all that other Presidenty-stuff on your desk and let Mr. Obama handle things for the next seven or eight weeks; I mean, we both know that nobody is listening to you anyway. I mean, at that G20 Summit a few couple of weeks ago, nobody would even shake your hand. You looked so sad. We both know that they'd shake Mr. Obama's hand, that's for sure--and as you remember, a handshake can mean a lot when you're doing business with your friends--or America's friends.

So, go on, kick back at Crawford. Clean some brush. Get yourself a nice big box of paper from Office Depot and maybe buy yourself a little laptop you can start the memoir on (Dell, a Texas company, will often run a deal where they'll give you a printer with a new computer--you should try them first). Maybe get yourself a copy of Baseball Mogul 2008 you can ALT-TAB over when the First Lady isn't looking and you're supposed to be writing about those heady days during the first nine months of 2001 when the world was your oyster, before everything got complicated. Chill. Relax. Take a break. Let the nice law professor from Chi do some cleaning while you put your feet up in socks and think about happier days and sunnier weather. Go on. We'll be fine, don't worry about it.

Sincerely,
Eric

Steve Buchheit said...

John, while it doesn't differentiate between job classifications, Toyota, with a year end bonus paid their workers more in salary last year.

While there are some things in the UAW contract I think need to be rethought, tossing out the union is not the solution. (full disclosure, I'm a Teamster through the GCIU).

mattw said...

Eric, I have just one question. How could Bush clear out a corner of the Oval Office when there are no corners?

In fact, isn't it kind of a cruel joke to even suggest that, cause you know Bush would spend his next seven weeks or so as president wandering around the Oval Office looking for that corner. :)

Eric said...

Matt--I guess I should have said "nook" or "space." You're right--the man might still be wandering around the White House looking for the missing corners well into 2014 or so, and here I was trying to gently skootch him out the door early....

Janiece said...

Eric, let's do follow the Constitution. It's taken such a beating the last 7 years, I'd really like to start off the Obama administration with a little respect.

MWT said...

Hmmm... I'm all for Bush asking for "advice" from Obama, and then being his puppet for the next two months. ;)

Jim Wright said...

I intend to do a post on auto industry bailout and GM situation in particular and so I'll limit my comments here.

But in brief, I find that I agree with John in principle with regards to the UAW and auto industry labor. The industry is not competitive in the current economic climate and the unions are a large part of that problem. HOWEVER, so is management for a variety of long standing reasons. The management/labor situation is untenable (and this is true to a large degree in a lot of American industry) - neither side will budge even if it means disaster.

I also agree in principle with Steve, we can't let the industry collapse without dire consequences.

And so we are left with a two bad choices, bailout out the industry in perpetuity, or bailout the hundreds of thousands who are suddenly jobless, pensionless, and without means. Either way, we the taxpayer are screwed.

I have an idea how this can be handled - and I'll have a post up about it later today.