DNC Chair Tim Kaine today:
We have more accomplishments to run on than any party in a long time. … Americans want results, and that’s what we’ve given them. … At a time when many Americans doubted the capacity of government to tackle and solve big problems, we have shown that we are the Results Party.
Ladies and gentlemen… the Results:
Unemployment 9.7 percent, peaking at 10.1 percent in October; a higher rate for every month of the Obama presidency than the highest month of the Bush presidency.
In housing, “foreclosure filings in the U.S. rose 16 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier and bank seizures hit a record as lenders stepped up action against delinquent homeowners, according to RealtyTrac Inc. A total of 932,234 homes, or one out of every 138 households, received a default or auction notice, or were repossessed by banks, the Irvine, California-based firm said today… RealtyTrac is forecasting more than 1 million bank seizures this year and at least 4 million foreclosure filings, both potential records. Foreclosures won’t level off until next year, Sharga said.”
Banking: “Eight more banks failed last week, bringing the 2010 total to 50. Three of the failures were in Florida, and two were in California. Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington had one bank failure each… According to FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, the number of bank failures is expected to peak this year, slightly exceeding the 140 in 2009.”
Controlling health care costs: “Overall national health expenditures under the health reform act would increase by a total of $311 billion, or nine-tenths of 1 percent, compared with the amounts that would otherwise be spent from 2010 to 2019.”
Debt and the deficit: “President Barack Obama urged Congress on Monday to quickly approve a huge new shot of spending for recession relief and job creation, part of a record $3.8 trillion budget that would boost the deficit beyond any in the nation’s history while only slowly beginning to put Americans back to work. If Congress goes along with Obama’s election-year plan, the nation would still end the year with unemployment pushing double digits at 9.8 percent and this year’s pool of government red ink deepening to $1.56 trillion under the administration’s accounting.”
Space policy: “With his decision to cancel NASA’s human spaceflight program and outsource it to private industry, Mr. Obama has now ensured that the People’s Republic of China with its military run program or Russia, will now wrest the title from us and hold it for decades or more.”
The Middle East: “Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country’s diplomats there that U.S.-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years.”
To give a smidgen of credit, I think Afghanistan and Iraq are in better shape than many of us would have predicted in November 2008.
But looking at the wreckage – er, record – I wonder if this really is the best strategy Kaine could come up with.