Are We Better Off Than in 2008? The Answer Is Yes - Gerald McKinstry

Are we better off than in 2008?
The answer is yes - Gerald McKinstry
7/16/13 9:55 PM
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McKinstry: Are we better off than in 2008? The answer is yes

September 6, 2012 5:41 PM By GERALD MCKINSTRY
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Gerald McKinstry
One morning during a meeting last week in Tampa, Fla., Republican strategist Frank Luntz gave the New York State Republican Party a painting of former President Ronald Reagan. The portrait of the conservative icon sat in front of the podium in the ballroom of the hotel where the state delegation was staying. In
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Page 1 of 8
Are we better off than in 2008? The answer is yes - Gerald McKinstry
7/16/13 9:55 PM
speech after speech from the likes of state party chairman Edward Cox, former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and House Speaker John Boehner, there were references to Reagan: on the economy, unemployment and Iran, to name a few. Gerald McKinstry
Gerald McKinstry is a member of the Newsday editorial board. bio | email | twitter
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But the most memorable Reaganism was his famous remark during a debate with President Jimmy Carter: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" We're hearing it a lot these days. Paul Ryan asked it. So did Mitt Romney. The simple answer: We are better off. But how quickly we can forget.
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Four years ago, the housing market imploded. Financial markets plunged after the subprime mortgage crisis. Lehman Brothers collapsed. The U.S. auto industry was on the verge of failure and the government took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. President George W. Bush pushed for a $700-billion economic stimulus package that was eventually approved. We were fighting wars on two fronts, in Iraq and Afghanistan. U.S. combat forces left Iraq in 2011. Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday covered many of these areas during his 48-minute speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., and answered that gnawing question to thunderous applause. "When President Barack Obama took office, the economy was in free fall. It had just shrunk 9 full percent of GDP. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month," Clinton said. "Are we doing better than that today? The answer to that is yes." At a campaign stop in downtown Detroit earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden summed it in simple terms: "You want to know whether we're better off? I've got a little bumper sticker for you: 'Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.'" To be clear, things are better, but we're not where we want, or need, them to be. Not on jobs, education, energy or even our place in the world. The economy is improving, but there's still a way to go. Gasoline prices remain high, wages are stagnant and unemployment is hovering around 8.3 percent. An estimated 12.8 million people are still out of work. Those people aren't better off. And maybe that's the Republican goal -- to attract disaffected voters. But that won't solve their problems. In the remaining eight weeks of this campaign, the candidates must present more than their vision for America. We need to hear a real path to getting the economy humming, on stable ground and getting people back to work, among so many other challenges. The "better off" question worked for Reagan more than three decades ago. It won't work for Romney. If Republicans want a Romney Revolution, they are going to have to start asking different questions -- and then have some answers. Gerald McKinstry is a member of the Newsday editorial board. User rating:
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7/16/13 9:55 PM
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Community nomoretaxes
10 months ago
New york is still the liberal infested sewar that it always was.

eklci
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10 months ago
Most people I know are NOT better off. Many have had to take pay cuts or frozen wages. Many have lost work for long periods of time and some are still unemployed. The Obama administration's response to all of this has been to reward those whose actions precipitated the crisis. The author points out that the situation was bad in 2008, but neglects to mention that from 2006 to 2008 (and from 2008 to 2010) both houses of Congress were controlled by Democrats. So Republicans AND Democrats brought us to this place. Neither really has the credibility to bring us out of it, but Obama has had four years and not adequately or competeently addressed the jobs issue. So maybe it's time for Romney as the lesser of two evils. (Best yet would be a third party, but little chance of that happening!)
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nomoretaxes
10 months ago
Only Government employees and welfare recipuents are better off now than before.
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nomoretaxes 10 months ago
Al Qaeda was very well of 8 years ago ( because of their benefactor GWB ) now they are pretty much irrelevant.
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reaganwasarat 10 months ago
Until something happens. Better not sleep with the lights off
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In the last decade right wing hate groups have committed more acts of terror and killed more people in the US then any other group, yet no body is investigating them.
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nomoretaxes
There is no such thing as right wing hate gorups. Hate groups by theier choice of violence are left wing. EG KKK
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Page 3 of 8
7/16/13 9:55 PM
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reaganwasarat
The KKK was an extremely conservative group, they were Christian fundamentalist. Much of the Christian Right leadership of today has ties to the KKK of old. Your complete lack of political understanding is mind boggling.

hemcole
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well said. unions were never supposed to be for government employees. they are negotiating with the people they help to elect. This is a joke.
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hemcole 10 months ago
Why were Government employes never suppose to be union members?

seldendennis
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And our troops who are no longer in Iraq. And young adults 19-25 who have health care. And auto workers who have jobs. And people who America was torturing. However gov't workers have seen their collective bargaining rights eliminated, wages reduced and and their jobs decreased. By what measure do you call them or welfare recipuents (sic) better off?
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seldendennis 10 months ago
Auto workers have guarentted health benefits but no jobs. Nor do the 19-25 year olds have jobs. IT's just like europe healthcae for all jobs for none. Welfare recipients got cost of living increases from Cuomo or did you forget about that.

GRE999
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"However gov't workers have seen their collective bargaining rights eliminated, wages reduced and and their jobs decreased." Collective bargaining my eye, these GOVERNMENT employees, they work for us, the TAX PAYER. Why do they even have a union? How much bigger would you like the goverment to be? They are already one, if not the largest employer in the US.
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GRE999 10 months ago
Yes they are and remember who the person was that expanded the government workforce to its highest level in years... His name was George W Bush...

nomoretaxes
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Unions had few if any cuts during the last 4 years. The victories against unions are few and minimal at best. The 19-25 may have healthcare but now they can't get jobs wo how are they better off? . Welfare recipients got increases and government workers got
7/16/13 9:55 PM
raises over the last few years. Few if any pay for their benefits too. They're definitly better off unlike the taxpayer who gets the bill from rising property taxes.
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True. A 19-25 year old shouldn't even need health care.
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nomoretaxes
rscurtis 10 months ago
occaisonally they do.
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seldendennis
You are not aware of what went on with Scott Walker. In Wisconsin? Repug governors have been after unions relentlessly. Do you think 19-25's had better job prospects four years ago? NO. All workers WORK for their benefits, they were never given free. Rising property taxes will get worse if we cut off Fed and state aid, which will happen if we squeeze the federal gov't.
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nomoretaxes
Wisconsin is a great start. Einstein where do you think the federal and state aid comes from. Do you think that there is someone in albany exreting Money. Property taxes rises because public employees keep expecting more and more. IT's time to give them less and less. The auto workers union got 25 billion in undeserved taxpayer funds to bail out thier benefit funds. They should have waited in line like the rest of the creditors for their share.

GRE999
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10 months ago
1-Please stop calling Chrysler one of the big 3 American automakers and please call it one the big Italian (FIAT) automakers! 2-If you think were better off now then you obviously are not a small business owner on Long Island. As an owner that supplies his employees with fully funded health benefits I can tell you that my health insurance costs have gone up by a minimum of 20% since Obamacare was announced - not implemented but announced! Cut the BS and give us tort reform and straighten out the health insurance industry in order to give all Americans affordable health care, not a national health care system
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The issue with health care in this country is that it is a business. That is the problem. Not the care of its citizens but to make money... What is wrong with that picture?
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seldendennis
You clearly state that you health costs went op BEFORE Obamacare was implemented. Yet you still blame it. Do facts matter at all to Repugs?
7/16/13 9:55 PM
implemented. Yet you still blame it. Do facts matter at all to Repugs?
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As per a typical democrat, read what I posted again, the health care costs started rising after Obamacare was announced and not yet implemented! Stop foaming at the mouth long enough to read the post. Insurance companies started raising rates in advance of the implementation of Obamacare!
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nomoretaxes
The health care costs continue to go up too. Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster. Meanwhile the purchasing power of the dollar has also gone down in the last three years and continues to decline.

reaganwasarat
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10 months ago
It is funny that when people talk about gas prices being that they never mention that driving the price of gas UP was the REAL reason we invaded Iraq. Since 1960 there has been a direct correlation between the price of gas and the net profits of the oil industry. When prices go up, so do profits. If we had not invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein would be flooding the market with cheap oil right now. The price of gas would be very low and so would the profits of Exxon/Mobil.

wayne231
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10 months ago
This question is so stupid, it all depends on who got the handouts and the bailouts, very few are better off today than they were would be my guess...
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wayne231 10 months ago
Actually this question is a matter of perception. The GOP wants you to think of it in a narrow scope and not look at the bigger picture, i.e. how secure did you feel 4 years ago compared to today. 4 years ago no one's job was secure because no one knew how bad the recession/depression was going to get. No one knew how many companies would go under. When you see companies like Citi, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns going bankrupt no one could safely say that the company they were working for wouldn't also go under. All one knew for sure is that massive lay offs were coming. So if you look at the question of how secure did you feel 4 years ago compared to now, most people would say that they are doing better.
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Well said...

Swordfish
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10 months ago
No growth, no jobs, no pipeline, no leadership, no budget - Obama should be toast. But McKinstry, what is your problem - are you Joe Biden's lost brother or something?
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Page 6 of 8
7/16/13 9:55 PM

libslant
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10 months ago
What is McKinstry smoking?

Jettech
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10 months ago
That is the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard.
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Jettech 10 months ago
Repugs always think reality is ridiculous.

reaganwasright
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10 months ago
The question is at what cost. Was it worth 30 billion which taxpayers will not get back to save GM when an organized bankruptcy would have done the same, rather than hand the company over to Obama's UAW buddies.Was the stimulius spending all borrowed money do much of anything except for helping state blcck grants that went to assist their employee pension funds. As we know their were no "shovel ready jobs", nor is this teh 1930's. Also, credit should be given to theBush Treasury Sectry who really did much to put a lid on a banking crisis, not govt. If you can give me specifics that Obama did to get us out of that mess, I would like to here them! But Congress did give permission basically to flood the system with cash, which of course inflates the currency but at least stabilized the situation. ARe we better off, not really, we are still looking at 375,000 new claims a month!, many of the jobs found are low paying service jobs and the underemployment rate is 14%. And since we do not include the couple of million who just took early retirement or disability, or passed thier 99 weeks, the real unemployment rate is higher. The point is business still does not have a clear path as where we are going, and healthcae costs for business has sky rocketed in the past 2 years. BHO has yet to offer any clear tax policy, and has added tons of regs that put a hampter any business development. The unemployment rate is somewhat better, but when you add the cost of energy, housing is still underwater, job growth is non existant, and personal incomes and wealth down, we at beast are not worse, but not much better. Only capitalism and private enterprise can lift us out, and we need a new President who recogonozies that.
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reaganwasright 10 months ago
Reagen was a rat.

jerm00ny
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"many of the jobs found are low paying service jobs and the underemployment rate is 14%" - Good Point Reagan. We have outsourced many of the other jobs. Just pay attention to how Altschuler made his fortune by outsourcing WHITE COLLAR JOBS to asia. He's a proud american... In my eyes he's a traitior to the AMerican working class.

schrubs1
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The loans and TARPS were paid back with interest. US made money on it, saved jobs and industries. Is that against repub goals?
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Page 7 of 8
7/16/13 9:55 PM
seldendennis
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schrubs1 10 months ago
Yes! Their stated goal is to make Obama a one term President. Anything that helps the country goes against that goal.
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And the repub obstruction of the Obama jobs plan goes along with that. Keep millions unemployed so Obama looks bad.

rm11518
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10 months ago
Let's see, no new wars to kill more Americans. No stock market crash. Another housing crash? Nope. Hmmm..., based on these few things alone I'd say we are better off.
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volks 1 UR1
rm11518 10 months ago
SHARE SOME OF THE DRUGS YOU TAKE.
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10 months ago
Stop drinking when you write.
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Opinion > Columnists

McKinstry: Are we better off than in 2008? The answer is yes

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nomoretaxes 10 months ago

reaganwasarat 10 months ago

nomoretaxes 10 months ago

reaganwasarat 10 months ago

nomoretaxes 10 months ago

nomoretaxes 10 months ago

hemcole 10 months ago

Why were Government employes never suppose to be union members?

seldendennis 10 months ago

seldendennis 10 months ago

GRE999 10 months ago

nomoretaxes 10 months ago

True. A 19-25 year old shouldn't even need health care.

rscurtis 10 months ago

occaisonally they do.

nomoretaxes 10 months ago

seldendennis 10 months ago

GRE999 10 months ago

GRE999 10 months ago

seldendennis 10 months ago

seldendennis 10 months ago

wayne231 10 months ago

reaganwasarat 10 months ago

What is McKinstry smoking?

That is the most ridiculous argument I have ever heard.

Jettech 10 months ago

Repugs always think reality is ridiculous.

reaganwasright 10 months ago

Reagen was a rat.

reaganwasright 10 months ago

reaganwasright 10 months ago

schrubs1 10 months ago

seldendennis 10 months ago

rm11518 10 months ago

SHARE SOME OF THE DRUGS YOU TAKE.

Stop drinking when you write.

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