- #71
jtc8470
Ivan Seeking said:Obama was handed a failing economy and was forced to take drastic action in order to prevent either a complete meltdown, or a decade or more of stagflation - no growth - according to most economists and experts. Japan is often cited as an example of what can happen if the government responds too slowly or with too little stimulus, when responding to a crisis. Their economy went flat for more than a decade.
Up until the very end, much of Bush's spending, as in Iraq, was elective. He was handed a relatively thriving economy that nearly collapsed by the time he left.
IMO, one of the few things that Bush did right was to sign the bailout bill. Obama had no objections; in fact he worked to gain support for the bill. Consider the graph and compare that to the actual debt at any time, and the importance of sustained growth becomes clear. Growth is how we keep our debt from burying us. Note that the graph is essentially our national debt to income ratio, over time.
You make some good points Ivan. I think though one of the most frustrating factors in regrad to the Obama bailout though is the padding that came along with it. I am not sure that everyone is aware how many people were paid off in the process. It was a prime opportunity for the gov to do that and quite frankly it pisses me off. I am at the point where I feel the gov, which ever side, does not work for us but for those that paid to put them there.