John Boehner downplays Dow 10,000

[sabra]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28282.html

Dow 10,000 just isn't that big a deal, House Republican leader John Boehner said Wednesday morning.

And anyone who places significance on the stock market hitting this symbolic number is "certainly not talking to the American people."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was hovering just below 10,000 in midday trading Wednesday, and the index is up 13 percent for the year.

...

The Dow hitting 10,000 again will be a significant milestone for Democrats in trying to show that the Obama administration's policies have taken the economy from the brink of disaster.

Boehner said the stock market's rebound is a reaction to the extreme shock from earlier this year, but it says little more than that.

"At the end of the day, the American people aren't looking at the stock market in terms of putting food on the table," Boehner said. "They want jobs, and they want them now."

[eleny]

1. And then he went back to his office and wept like a baby

[jaxx]

7. That was the best statement I've read today!!

[SIMPLYB1980]

28. +100

:toast:

[LynneSin]

2. Boehner is an ass

but we all knew that one

[louis-t]

3. A lot different from the wild swings of the bush era

800 point swings in one day just aren't healthy. Slow, steady growth is healthy.

[Frustratedlady]

18. We also haven't had the wild swings on gas prices at the pump.

Nor the $4/gal.

[louis-t]

30. Just wait. They're preparing us for it now.

Saying "recession is OVER!!!". More Cash for Clunkers programs and more mass transit will help.

[KansDem]

4. I don't know, the words "Boehner" and "downplay" in the same sentence?

And I'm not pronouncing it "BAY-ner" either...

[Politics_Guy25]

5. Boehner really is an ass-n/t

[dmallind]

6. Sounds like a DUer or three - same lack of acknowledgement that employment is last to recover. NT

[AndyA]

8. This coming from someone who a couple of weeks ago hadn't met anyone

that was for the public option. (Head up ass too much, apparently... :eyes:)

Besides which, who gives a crap what this man thinks. He is as corrupt as they come. Remember Boehner handing out tobacco industry "campaign donation" checks ON THE HOUSE FLOOR RIGHT BEFORE AN IMPORTANT VOTE ON THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY?

He really is the poster Rep for corruption in government.

[JDPriestly]

15. Boehner meant to say that he refuses to speak to anyone who supports the public option.

[tridim]

9. Republican Party Throws Wall Street Under The Bus!

2010 and 2012 are going to be so much fun. :)

[bluestateguy]

10. We are long past the days when the stock market was just the purview of rich people

Plenty of working class people have investments and/or 401K's.

[Rex]

11. Piss off Repuke scumbag. People can't stand the fact that YOU

and your ilk always downplay anything that could 'hurt' the Republican party. And always at the expense of the working class, with no care about how much hurt is done to the American people.

Repukes talk like they didn't fuck everything up to begin with. Arrogant trash.

[ddeclue]

12. Boehner doesn't really believe that but he's actually correct for once in his life.

It's just a number folks - what really matters is main street not wall street. Home foreclosures, jobs, and uninsured Americans are really the key indicators that matter.

[rucky]

20. I agree.

but I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit .

[bunkerbuster1]

25. more or less my take.

Boner's still a boner, but he happens to have it more or less right. We shouldn't be breaking out champagne, that's for damnsure.

[bridgit]

13. Their minds are blown having to think America is turning round without them...

[AllentownJake]

14. I'm not sure the fundamentals support DOW 10,000

So Democrats should be a lit cautious about celebrating until they see employment go from job losses to job creation. Of course the lagging indicator people will jump all over me, however let me be clear. Americans don't give a fuck about economic theory. They give a fuck about providing for their families.

[debbierlus]

16. Wall Street just stole our treasury and our children's future to the tune of trillions

As democrats, I am surprised at you.

I hate Boehner and his reasons for the statement are purely political.

But, he is right.

This is not a recovery. The theft of our treasury, the huge transfer of wealth from the working people to the corporations and Wall Street bankers has resulted in a temporary jump in the Wall Street numbers that does not represent real recovery. Did you read my post yesterday about Goldmansachs (Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's old stomping ground), they are handing out 23 billion dollar bonuses this year after helping to create the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression)?

This is so beyond Republican Versus Democrat, it isn't funny.

This jobless recovery created by borrowing trillions on the backs of working people to the sole benefit of Wall Street is disgusting.

So, don't use the pathetic rigged numbers of Wall Street to celebrate. It makes you just as bad as the Repukes, you claim to despise.

Shame on you.

[sabra]

22. Americans have an estimated $3.4 trillion in retirement plans attached to the stock market

http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourmoney/personalfinance/articles/older_workers_suffer_steep_losses_in_retirement_accounts.html

The nation’s financial problems have proved costly for workers at retirement’s doorstep. Nearly one in six lost roughly a third or more of the value in their 401(k) plans—America’s primary savings vehicle for retirement—from the start of the recession in December 2007 through this June, a new report finds.

In that period, 32 percent of workers ages 55 to 64 with money in Vanguard-administered 401(k) plans saw their savings shrink by more than 20 percent, while 16 percent faced losses of more than 30 percent, according to Vanguard’s report, “How America Saves 2009.”

The market collapse hit Vanguard’s oldest plan participants even harder: 37 percent of those ages 65 and up lost more than 20 percent of their 401(k) savings, while 22 percent saw declines greater than 30 percent.

Defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s are the backbone of most Americans’ retirement strategy. Americans have an estimated $3.4 trillion in these plans, accounting for 33 percent of all household financial assets in the United States, the Investment Company Institute reports.

[debbierlus]

33. So what?! Why the hell should people be taxed to protect investments?

First....

Investment in stocks have a RISK. If you choose to invest your money in stocks and the risk doesn't pay off, should the rest of the country subsidize YOUR risk?

Second....

The handling of this crisis does NOT protect the average person's long term investments. The best economic analysists (ie, the ones who saw this current disaster a mile away and have been RIGHT all along) all say that the economic policies of the trash for cash of Paulson extended under Geithner will not sustain economic recovery. In fact, they state that this will lead to a WORSE economic crash then the current one. We still own junk. We maxed out our credit to maintain the status quo which is NOT sustainable.

This economic system is unsustainable and we are heading toward a cliff. The fact that the corporations can get away with this out and out theft because it has the 'Obama Brand' covering the stench of their shit is all the more distressing. I expect this from sheeple republicans, but liberals.

Wtf?

[FightingIrish]

17. For many retirees the stock market is food on the table

I'm finally getting back some of the money I made in the Clinton years and lost in the Bush years.

[Johonny]

26. I agree

[Renew Deal]

19. It is insignificant, but I love watching these guys squirm.

:D

[lpbk2713]

21. Who GAF what Boner has to say?

He's just making himself look like a RW reactionary jerk anyway.

[bergie321]

23. 10600

Will be a better symbolic number because then it will be like Bush was just a bad dream.

[gratuitous]

24. Now if the Dow had gone back over 10,000 with a Republican in the White House

Boehner would be in front of the cameras and microphones crowing about what a stellar job the Republicans were doing, and everyone here knows it. The people supplying the cameras and microphones know it. The people at politico.com know it. But only one of those three groups will actually say it out loud.

By the way, Mr. Boehner, where'd all those jobs go, anyway? You and your gang had control of things while the economy was bleeding then hemorrhaging jobs. Suddenly you're all worried about jobs? Will you still be worried about jobs (that's the plural, you're always worried about keeping your own phony baloney job) if the Republicans ever again get their greedy, blood-stained hands on the levers of power? I think not.

The classy thing to do, Mr. Boehner, would be to just shut up. You created this mess, it's getting cleaned up if only a little bit, and you can't stand it, can you?

[janx]

27. It just hit 10,000-- n/t

[janx]

29. kick

[TexasObserver]

31. Ha-huh. You said "boner." --- Butthead

[spanone]

32. his job is to be an asshole, and i think he's seriously over qualified.