Don't worry, you will be calling those years "The Good Ol' Days" soon enough. Seriously, war spending did damage and the toxic asset fiasco (which can be laid in the lap of Frank, Dodd and Pelosi) has brought us to the precifus. However, Obama takes the Bush years and instead of applying the brakes, he has engaged the spending afterburners as we approach financial ruin. It's like his motto is "Anything Bush Can Do, I Can Do Better".
That's not our only choice. Unless you're allowed to define our choices for us. I certainly hope not.
None of this is Obama's fault. The following link shows that the previous administration ran up over $1trillion dollars of debt from 9/30/2007 to 9/30/2008. The deficit numbers people speak of are hogwash because they are manipulated to make the deficit look smaller, just as inflation and unemployment numbers have been manipulated to look more rosy after the numbers cost Jimmy Carter the election in 1980. So yes, Obama really DID inherit a $1trillion and climbing deficit. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm
Granted, only a small part belonged to Obama on January 19th. But, on January 20th it became his PROBLEM. He wants to increase spending to $4 tril a year (an increase from $24,000 to $32,000 per houshold), has inserted himself deep into private business and has more power over Americans than any previous President. It's the full-speed-ahead with massive ADDITIONAL spending and the intrusion into business and personal liberties that has everyone worried. (well, everyone except those who are and will get the handouts) Remember when Paulson told Congress that the $700bil for the banks was an arbitrary number intended to be so large that the banks would know there was sufficient capital to solve any problems? His intent was not to need all of it Then, Obama asked Bush to get authorization for the second half of the $700bil so he could spend it. Then Obama asked for and got another $700bil Stimulus which only had a small portion of stimulus. Most was Democratic PORK. Then the Omnibus bill with 8000 earmarks and more for AIG and more for the Autos and the Fed is lending in the Trillions to the banks and creating money by buying treasuries from Geitner's Treasury. Then Obama has the gall to ask his cabinet to cut spending by $100mil. That's like asking a family who SPENDS $60,000 per year to cut back by $6 a month. Yikes! Who's he kidding? On top of that Obama wants to grow the budget by an upressidented amount. And another $70bil for I forgot what. The spending never ends. Soon the dollar will be worthless at this rate. Even China knows their U.S. bonds are going to go south big time in buying power as the dollar eventually falls.
Obama and the Gov't are doing all they can to avoid deflation, which is the path we were heading towards under the previous administration. The only way to do this is to spend. Spending on WWII is what brought us out of the first depression. Some inflation is always necessary. Deflation is what most economists try to avoid at all costs.
IMHO, Obama, Geitner and the others O' has tapped don't have a clue. Bernanke has a clue but is applying 1930's discipline. In the 1930's we didn't have Medicare, Social Security and the coming Health Care that is going to make bringing a massive deficit (like that during WWII as a % of GDP) back down nearly impossible. Only a few billion of the Stimulus bill has been spent to date. The bill wasn't really a stimulus bill it was a PORK bill that will be spent over the next few years. To late for stimulus spending. Also, the planned gov spending won't save us from deflation because none or very little of it is supporting the real estate market which is the crux of this entire crisis. This issue is really the only one that needs to be addressed. As it is, the RE market will have to find the bottom without any gov help. They are attacking the symptoms instead of the problem. For instance (and this is not going to happen), what if governent started giving a 200% tax deduction for mortgage interest for the next 5 or 10 years? And they offered an immediate tax CREDIT of several thousand dollars for any real estate purchase. Do you think that might help the RE market find a bottom? It would go right to the heart of the problem and it would cost a lot less than the trillions appropriated so far.
You act as if deflation is some dirty word. Deflation is just a euphemism for increased purchasing power. In other words something desirable. After this spending doesn't head off deflation-which it won't-then Obama will engage Stimulus ll-war in Pakistan.
You are an imbecile. It is people like you who voted an idiot twice, and insulted Al Gore for pointing out during the debates that the guy is an idiot, and could not take it he had to sigh. You voted the guy because you felt he is a regular guy like yourself: an idiot. The result: we know what he did to the economy, and to the reputation of the greatest country on earth. Since you could not distinguish between an idiot and a nobel prize winner to lead the country, you are an imbecile to say the least. Since we have a new president, things are better. Night vs day in less three months.
The SS problem is basically minor compared to what is coming down the road with medicare and medicaid. Projections by CBO show social security holding around 4% of GDP while Medicare and Medicaid increase from about 4% in 2007 to 9% in 2030. Seneca