Post by dej on Jul 24, 2009 9:52:40 GMT -4
I copied this line from the "Joke" thread, and started a new thread here because this is a more appropriate place to respond to it.
"This disdain for reality, and for expertise, pervaded the Bush economic approach, and made it impossible for the Administration to react intelligently to real-world economic problems like the housing bubble."
Let's talk a little about disdain for economic reality.
President Obama keeps referring to how tough it made his job by inheriting the $1.2 trillion dollar deficit run up over the eight years of the Bush adminstration. He promised to cut the deficiit in half by the end of his first term, and then proceeded to do just the opposite. The current deficit is about $1.8 trillion, meaning that an additional $600 billion has been added in just the first six months of his administration. Adding to the deficit at the rate of $100 billion a month means he could add an additional $1.2 trillion to the deficit in just one year instead of eight. At this rate, he'll have to cut the deficit in half during the last three years of his term just to get back to the levels he inherited. That sounds a lot like the "huge sales" some retail stores do by jacking up the prices, then cutting them in half to convince people that they got a bargain. Unfortunately, it seems many people are falling for this Obama "fire sale" tactic.
The rate of spending could actually increase even faster, as the stimulus spending has gotten off to a slow start but is expected to pick up, and the "cash for clunkers" program is just starting. This rate of increased spending doesn't even take into account the new heights of deficit spending that will be reached with the health care "reform" being pushed through Congress, which will likely make it impossible to reduce the deficit at all in those three years.
Back in May, Obama made headlines when he announced our level of deficit spending was "unsustainable". Many thought that announcement meant he might start trying to control spending. Instead it appears that the level of deficit spending was "unsustainable" because it wasn't enough to cover all the new programs he wants. In hindsight, I guess he was trying to tell us he would be INCREASING the spending instead of trying to rein it in.
If people could shed their partisan blinders, they could see the current administration is certainly no more capable than the last adminstration in dealing with real-world economic problems. We were promised "Change" but we just got more of the same, which is an adminstration that puts it's political agenda ahead of dealing with the real world problems in a realistic way.
"This disdain for reality, and for expertise, pervaded the Bush economic approach, and made it impossible for the Administration to react intelligently to real-world economic problems like the housing bubble."
Let's talk a little about disdain for economic reality.
President Obama keeps referring to how tough it made his job by inheriting the $1.2 trillion dollar deficit run up over the eight years of the Bush adminstration. He promised to cut the deficiit in half by the end of his first term, and then proceeded to do just the opposite. The current deficit is about $1.8 trillion, meaning that an additional $600 billion has been added in just the first six months of his administration. Adding to the deficit at the rate of $100 billion a month means he could add an additional $1.2 trillion to the deficit in just one year instead of eight. At this rate, he'll have to cut the deficit in half during the last three years of his term just to get back to the levels he inherited. That sounds a lot like the "huge sales" some retail stores do by jacking up the prices, then cutting them in half to convince people that they got a bargain. Unfortunately, it seems many people are falling for this Obama "fire sale" tactic.
The rate of spending could actually increase even faster, as the stimulus spending has gotten off to a slow start but is expected to pick up, and the "cash for clunkers" program is just starting. This rate of increased spending doesn't even take into account the new heights of deficit spending that will be reached with the health care "reform" being pushed through Congress, which will likely make it impossible to reduce the deficit at all in those three years.
Back in May, Obama made headlines when he announced our level of deficit spending was "unsustainable". Many thought that announcement meant he might start trying to control spending. Instead it appears that the level of deficit spending was "unsustainable" because it wasn't enough to cover all the new programs he wants. In hindsight, I guess he was trying to tell us he would be INCREASING the spending instead of trying to rein it in.
If people could shed their partisan blinders, they could see the current administration is certainly no more capable than the last adminstration in dealing with real-world economic problems. We were promised "Change" but we just got more of the same, which is an adminstration that puts it's political agenda ahead of dealing with the real world problems in a realistic way.