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AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
President Barack Obama gestures as he addresses the crowd during a town hall meeting at ElectraTherm, Inc. a small renewable energy company in Reno, Nev., Thursday, April 21, 2011.
By Anjeanette Damon (contact) 
Friday, April 22, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
At a town hall Thursday, when an earnest college student pleaded with President Barack Obama to help higher education stave off serious budget cuts, Obama launched into what could be a pat answer in almost any other state.
He touted the $787 billion stimulus, which included a substantial amount of money to help states with their budget deficits.
“For two years, we were able to prevent some of the worst choices states might have to make about laying off teachers, police officers, firefighters,” Obama said. “Now the economy is growing again, and state revenues are getting a little better.”
Halfway through his answer, however, Obama seemed to remember where he was speaking: Nevada.
“I understand here in Nevada the economy has been the slowest to recover, because this is also where the housing boom was hottest,” Obama said. “So that’s put bigger strains on the budget here.”
Indeed, the unemployment rate is higher in Nevada than anywhere else, foreclosures top the charts and state lawmakers are dealing with a $2.5 billion budget hole opened in part by the evaporation of the stimulus money that had helped Nevada limp through the last two years.
The fact is, the nascent recovery that is taking hold in other parts of the country has yet to sprout here.
And that makes this presidential battleground state, which Obama won by 12 points in 2008, difficult terrain to traverse in his newly launched re-election bid.
“Where we are in this sort of spectrum of recovery versus recession is different,” Democratic consultant Dan Hart said. “The conditions are far more extreme here than in most other states. He’s got to tread very carefully here.”
In his answer to the college student, Obama quickly acknowledged Nevada’s economic situation.But as Obama faces his own difficult budget problems, he had little more than advice to offer Nevada lawmakers.
President Barack Obama gestures while addressing the crowd during a town hall meeting at ElectraTherm, Inc. a small renewable energy company in Reno, Thursday, April 21, 2011.
“I recognize a state like Nevada has to make tough choices,” he said. “I think it is very important, when making those choices, not to be shortsighted.”
Obama acknowledged “additional revenue” might be needed to blunt education cuts in Nevada, but then pivoted once again to make sure the audience knew he had helped negotiate a middle-class tax cut effective this year.
“How many people here know that not only did we cut your taxes when I first came into office, but back in December we just cut your taxes again?” he said. “You wouldn’t know it from watching TV, you would think I’m just raising everybody’s taxes.”
The pivoting is yet another symptom of Obama’s careful gait into re-election mode.
Obama’s visit to Reno was one of three in a campaignlike swing to sell his vision for reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade.
Contrasting his plan with one from Republicans to cut $6 trillion, Obama calls his a “balanced approach” designed to dramatically cut spending, raise taxes on the wealthiest and preserve social programs important to Democrats.
The plan, Obama hopes, will appeal to a broad swath of voters, establishing him once again as the consensus candidate after he pushed through several Democratic initiatives in the first half of his presidency.
That could be key to swinging independent voters, who he carried handily in Nevada three years ago, back into his column.
“Last time, he had the underpinnings of a great economy,” said Michael Dermody, a Reno businessman who has contributed money to both Republican and Democratic candidates and who was invited to attend Obama’s speech by Gov. Brian Sandoval. “Without that, independent voters are a lot wiser.”
If Obama can’t run in Nevada on an economic recovery he helped spur, he can run as a candidate “who gets it,” Democratic strategist Billy Vassiliadis said.
Indeed, several times during his speech, Obama picked up that theme, recounting personal experiences struggling to do his taxes and driving a gas guzzling “beater” when gas prices were high.
The key message in Nevada, could be to at least replace success with empathy.
“I’ve been there,” he said. “It hurts.”
"How many people here know that not only did we cut your taxes when I first came into office, but back in December we just cut your taxes again?"
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This is a quote from Obama that will not be repeated in 'Fox world' me thinks.
Why doesn't the President mention that he cut payroll taxes for businesses last year, and that most Republicans opposed him? I saved about $1,400 on that deal. Then last December, he wanted another payroll tax cut for employers for this this year, but Republicans stopped him. I would have saved a lot of money on that. I don't understand why Democrats don't talk about it.
In addition, everyone who has a job saves 2 percent on their payroll taxes. NOT YOUR INCOME TAX. Get it? It's 2 percent off the top, for the entire year. If you make $500 gross wages on your next paycheck, you'll get 10 dollars more. If you make $30,000 a year, you'll keep an extra $600 for the year. If you make $50,000, you get an extra $1,000. If you make $100,000, you save $2,000. The President got that for you last December while Republicans got the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy extended. I can't figure out why Democrats seem to want to keep this a secret.
"Why doesn't the President mention that he cut payroll taxes for businesses last year, and that most Republicans opposed him?"
-----------------------------
Indeed, he is still being to nice to the wackos in the GOP on this, hope he gets mean soon.
sorry barry...
i used to love you man...
but...
you are just too soft...
too wimpy...
you need to be liked too much...
we elected the wrong woman...
we should have elected hilary!!!
When you really get down to the facts and I mean real facts, This is the most incompetent president that this country has ever had from its start. I give him credit for his ability and the ones behind him to hide the facts about him and his background. Consideration of facts is not in the Liberals playbook.
Hey, Nick...
I prefer coffee.
Black. Stronger the better!
Is that Tetley's?
You need cream & sugar?
How do you STOMACH that crap?
HEY, Check out this little vid on the "Worst President ever"! It's pretty good... frankly though, what's the diff?
Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Bush, BUSH...peas in a pod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsziT-oDg...
Refill?
hey nick...
when you get down to the facts...
i mean the real facts...
republicans are children...
selfish...
incapable of thinking beyond "me"...
have no sense of community...
willing to stretch the truth to get what they want...
throw tantrums...
children...
itty bitty children...
period...
end of story...
barry's only problem is...
he has treated these children like adults...
big mistake...
now...
he finally showed some spine on the budget...
and he will have to show more spine with the debt ceiling...
i hope he does...
if he doesn't...
his base will dwindle further...
and make no mistake partner...
birdie was once a pillar of his base...
i just hope i can do it again...
cignettis - Did you consider that fact that Obama cut payroll taxes for businesses in 2010? That really helped small business owners like me. Too bad the Republicans killed that idea for this year, I would have saved some more money.
Do you have a job? At the end of this year, multiply your gross wages by 2 percent. That is how much money you'll save on your taxes. You can thank Prsident Obama for that. The Republicans fought for, and got, an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Green job fantasies. Take two.
Why do they call them "town hall" meetings? The people in the audience are either big contributors or employees of some factory that Mr. Obama is visiting. Unemployed people and people who have lost their homes don't get invited to these "town hall" meetings. People like that, Mr. Obama doesn't want to see, let alone have to look them in the eye.
Remember come election that Obama called citizens who want our laws applied to foreign nationals costing us over $113 Billion annually the enemy. Our own President has called us the enemy for wanting federal laws enforced. How clear can this man make it that he will run this country into a third world hole any way he can.
The wealthy own the news media and they sure as heck don't want THEIR taxes raised, so you only hear how terrible things are because of Obama, especially on Faux news! Obama was dealt a bad hand but things are slowly improving!
"Our own President has called us the enemy"
-----------------------------------
You TeaHeads deserve another term of Obama, and you will get it too.
And Palin is not gonna save you..
:-)
One of the problems with President Obama's messages, nothing seems to get done, but things are getting better. News outlets are focused on the 24-hour news cycle generated by Washington-Speak, sound-bites, radical comments by Republicians and Demcratics.
The numbers show us there is slow progress, but we don't receive the hard numbers on the front pages of newspapers or from online news outlets. Fear and drama are placed front and center each day to direct the weak minded to follow.
Politically, one would think President Obama is the only Democrat in America. He's the lone voice talking about Democratic values. This is the perception of many independents, independents who are searching for that dying breed, a Real Democrat. Yes, it is said they only come out at night, or on election day.
What the President's reply makes obvious: if we are to save education in Nevada, we must write to our legislators and demand that they not "sunset" the 2009 tax add-on. With such a budget deficit in our state, now is not the time to cut what revenue sources there are. The choice is clear: more tax cuts for the rich or save higher education.
The title of the article is a little misleading. There's nothing tricky about spinning your own version of reality, all you need is good speech writers and a teleprompter. Remember all good politicians have to do is paint the other guy as being worse than what they can (or can't) do. The whole lesser of two evils kind of thing.
So I take it everyone is happy with the hope & change we are getting?
Everyone is better off, than they were 2 1/2 years ago.
Or are we still blaming Bush for anything bad?
Remember now Obama promised us he would make everything better. Not like he would lie or anything.
How long do we have to wait for all of that hope and change that Obummer promised?
Any answers?
Steve: He cut the payroll withholdings. He didn't cut the income taxes, just what was taken out of your check. There's a HUGE difference. What that means is that if you were expecting a return it will be smaller than last year. With this "cut" my effective net income tax rate remained unchanged this year from 2009. Next lie to debunk please.
We have never had a president as bad as this guy in the history of the USA. What about the gas prices, if this was Bush the news would be all over it, what a joke. He has done nothing for this country but put us deeper in debt. All you robots make sure you vote for him again!
Obama has lied to the American people so many times, his credibility is near zero. He promised that he would cut the deficit in half. he tripled it. He would have the most transparent administration in history. He would unite the country. All pure baloney.
You certainly can't believe his numbers. Every month's employment numbers are quietly revised a week later. His numbers on Obamacare were proven to be based on wildly unrealistic projections, double counting, and accounting gimmicks. Same for his economic numbers.
Obama's pathological narcissism depends on his assumption that we are all so stupid, and he is so smart that he can easily bamboozle us time after time. The man is patently dishonest, and cares only about maintaining and increasing his own power and control at our expense. He is a great danger to this country, and must be denied a second term.
The article states that:
"Obama's visit to Reno was one of three in a campaignlike swing to sell his vision for reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade.
Contrasting his plan with one from Republicans to cut $6 trillion, Obama calls his a "balanced approach" designed to dramatically cut spending, raise taxes on the wealthiest and preserve social programs important to Democrats.
The plan, Obama hopes, will appeal to a broad swath of voters, establishing him once again as the consensus candidate after he pushed through several Democratic initiatives in the first half of his presidency."
The article fails to mention that there is no new Obama plan. Just his original budget from two months ago, which adds trillions more to the federal debt, and some vague ideas he threw out during a speech, which are mainly new government spending rather than spending reductions. Meanwhile, he misses no opportunity to bash Congressman Ryan, who actually did put put out a plan with specific cuts.
So the real question becomes: Will President Obama really put out a deficit reduction plan? Remembering that the Obamacare legislation was actually written by Harry Reid's staffers, you can't be too sure about this...
The author of this piece says that Obama's budget seeks to cut $4 trillion over a decade--and this is UNTRUE. His budget, in order to fool more people - like the author - bizarrely uses 12 years, and not 10, as its timeframe. Nice try.
Obama gave tax "credits" to people who PAY NO FEDERAL INCOME TAXES!! You can't cut "zero," this is yet another LIE.