NEOAVATARA

Well, the economic predictions of this White House lasted…exactly 100 days.

The economy contracted sharply in the first quarter of the year as businesses scaled back on investments and cut their stockpiles of unsold goods, the government reported.  The GDP decreased by 6.1% in the first quarter of 2009.  That is after a 6.3% decrease in the fourth quarter of 2008.  Not since 1958 have Americans experienced such a sharp contraction over six months.

There does appear to be a bottoming out of the economy however.  Price indicators within Wednesday’s report suggested inflationary pressures rose in first-quarter 2009, easing fears of deflation.  Weaker investment in housing combined with the enormous inventory adjustment to pull the economy downward. But the aggressive draw down of stockpiles of goods, while hurting the economy in the short run, is beneficial because it is an important step toward bringing inventories under control and ending a production free fall.  Consumer spending also did increase slightly.

This GDP drop was much more than predicted.  During debate of the Obama Budget plan, White House economic experts predicted a 4.6% decrease in GDP this quarter.  Why is this important?  Because the massive budget deficits in the Obama budget proposal were dependent on GDP growth to be higher than it now appears it will be. Therefore, it is highly likely that the Obama deficits, as big as they were predicted, will be even larger now.  Scary thought.

Obama appears nonplussed.  Today, in his glorious 100th day celebration, lambasted protesters involved in the Tea Parties last month, because clearly they are not dealing with realities:

“Those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I’m not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, Obama said, “let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security.”

“But,” Obama continued, “let’s not play games and pretend that the reason [for the deficit] is because of the Recovery Act.”

Um, sorry…who is lacking connection to reality?  This was LARGELY BECAUSE OF THE RECOVERY ACT.  Sure, the deficit to this point has little to do with Obama, but that won’t last long.  Obama is going to double the deficit from the last 233 years in 5 years.  And you have Nancy Pelosi defending the choices as ‘representing our nation’s values.’  Who is she kidding?

Additionally, Obama may not agree with their opinion, but don’t discount our opinions as well.  I guess when Democrats ask for respect, it doesn’t go both ways.  He doesn’t have to accept the premise of the Tea Partiers, but at least should respect their position.  He is too arrogant to even do that.

I ask you, who is more discombobulated, those who are protesting in the streets, or the Obama Administration who believes his deficits are nothing to worry about?