I think it's inevitable that the discussion turn partisan and have people blaming president x for this and president x for that. It strikes me as funny though because Americans are all in the same economic boat and everybody seems to be convinced that they're right and the other guys are wrong. I have a unique perspective as a non-American and in my admittedly short life I've never seen the country so polarized. It seems as though both the right and left in the US are crossing their fingers hoping that whatever the other guy (or gal) does will blow up in their face and prove that the other political party is right.Jake wrote:It was the administration who made promises that the stimulus package would keep unemployment below 8%. After $800 billion and a boatload of promises the economy is weak at best, and the unemployment rate blew past 8% and kept right on going. Your right about one thing, the CBO is typically fair in their scoring; however they are at the mercy of the data/assumptions given to them to run the models, and both parties play games with the numbers so even CBO scores don’t always reflect reality. The amount of jobs created by the stimulus spending is a highly debated topic, primarily because the administration used some really shady assumptions to come up with a magical number of “jobs saved” which is added to the total. Furthermore many of the “jobs created” were temporary – things like the census workers, research grants, and adding road crews for extra projects do not create permanent jobs. The biggest beneficiary of the stimulus were people in public sector union jobs, which given the ties the unions have to Obama the whole thing reeked of political favoritism. So the 1.2-2.8 million jobs “created” is not a solid figure, but even if you take the average and say the stimulus created 2 million jobs that means that the price tag for each job is a whopping $400,000! I will stick with my assessment that the stimulus was a failure, a big steaming pile of failure! And I strongly disagree with your statement that the that the majority of economists claim otherwise. Now we have the current proposed stimulus-2 (“jobs bill”) which is another $447 billion travesty, no thanks.
The spending is out of control. The Bush administration raised the national debt $4.9 trillion (from $5.7 trillion to $10.6 trillion) during their 8 years in office, which is horrendous. But Obama has made that seem like childs play. He rolled into town and immediately expanded the federal budget by a trillion dollars, dished out $800 billion in stimulus, rammed thru Obamacare (with a down payment of $634 billion and more to come) and kept right on rolling. Keep in mind that the price tag of the first stimulus package alone had the cost of the entire Iraq war beat by a 100 billion dollars (CBO scores cost of Iraq war at $709 billion thru 2010). In only 2.5 years Obama has managed to tack on another $4.2 trillion to the national debt and the hits just keep coming, debt and deficit projections are simply staggering. Serious financial reform is needed - cut spending, reform the entitlement programs, and rework the tax system ASAP or we will be in a major world of hurt very soon.
Although it may sound it to you that I am hard right person, I am not. Common sense is all that is needed to see how screwed up things are and I am very frustrated with the current path this country is on and how the current administration is governing. You seem to be a fan of the tax and spend policies, and I doubt I will ever be able to convince you otherwise (nor will you change my mind either), so let’s just leave it at we agree to disagree. But I know down deep that you know that you are wrong and I am right….LOL! Or maybe I should end with the classic……I’m rubber and your glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!
The truth is that from the outside, the two major political parties in the US aren't that different at all. Sure, they have different approaches to certain issues, but its not as left/right as the pundits make it out to be. Realistically, on social policy the Democrats would be far too right wing to win an election in the vast majority of Western countries.
I guess my point is that regardless of who's in power, its going to take a long time to get out of the mess you're in. Much of the huge growth over the 80s and 90s was made by a lot of free wheeling companies and stock brokers who have figured out how to "work" the stock market. I think the market has reached its breaking point and, let's be honest, today it's just a casino. There are no more "blue chip" stocks. I just read an interesting piece by Andrew Sorkin on the wild swings that characterises the market today. The truth of the matter is that a lot of the economic volatility seen in the US is influenced by mindless piles of "virtual" money that flies around the world at the click of a mouse.
It's not a matter of political ideology...no government vs. lots of government. Companies need room to manoeuvre and grow away form government restrictions, but they also need to be regulated. There are a lot more Madoffs running around looking for an opportunity!
When do you guys think Americans will be able to come together again around a President? Isn't the first classic move in warfare to divide the nation to make them weak? Seems like that's been the case since 9/11.
BTW, if I'm getting out of line or offending anybody just tell me off!
FYI: I have HEARD that manufacturing is starting to come back to the US on its own BECAUSE the chinese are going union (higher wages) AND American companies that outsourced are now realizing there is a serious LACK OF QUALITY CONTROL.
In 1989 Bush #1 banned Chinese guns made by Norinco. And back in, I want to say the '80s, Congress imposed an embargo on Japanese cruiser motorcycles over a certain CC size all to save Harley Davidson from bankruptcy. So where do you get you info that it is illegal? It has been done!