This bad economy also has an asshole.  Several assholes, in fact.

Dodd, Frank, Schumer, Pelosi, Reid, Obama.  And Hillary has to be thanking God she accepted the DOS gig.

Yep. But this economy didn't happen overnight, it's a hole that took quite some time to dig. Like perhaps the last 8 years and the assholes have names like Bush and Cheney. You're simply reaping what you sowed.

Yeah, sure.  Lame dodge.  So what about Dodd's, Frank's, Schumer's, Pelosi's, Reid's and Obama's roles?.

You're right, mumble.  My list was not all-inclusive, just some of the All-Stars.  And I should have included Bush43, Clinton & Bush41.

However, the successor All-Stars, those agents of change (the idiot having been re-united with his village in Texas, to paraphrase his critics), having pilloried Bush for the problem, have chosen to 'solve' the problem they 'inherited' by out-Bushing Bush, simply adding a dozen zeros or so to the amount of the bill.

Maybe the problem isn't the government at all. Maybe the fault lies with all of us, with our credit culture and apathy. Does anyone know exactly what caused the recession? If so, what is a better solution for a recession than to increase the money supply?

Regardless of who is to blame or when it began, I will tell you one thing many people are not feeling these days, (I am paraphrasing here, not my original) the one word that is the American way - freedom. (or freewill) Freedom = Money.  There is no money, so where is the freedom?  I couldn't agree more!

Don't forget Reagan.

If you want to talk about all stars look to see under whose administrations the national debt increased and by how much. According to the following chart the all stars within my lifetime are Reagan, Bush1 and Bush2. Period. End of story.

We now see the contribution the "idiot" made, perhaps in another 8 years we will be in a position to legitimately judge Obama's contribution (or lack thereof). In any case it certainly requires a bit more than 60 days to judge his performance.

As far as the bit players you mention what about Frist, Lott, DeLay, Rove, Libby, Foley, et al?

In any case it's a lamer dodge to say that the past is the past and there's no sense in dwelling on how we got here particularly when it's your party that got us into this mess in the first place.

What's this, someone trying to make sense and take a little responsibility? Can't have any of that here.

Credit Default Swaps, i.e. unregulated greed, a republican speciality.

The point of your OP is admirable, that real people that we all know are the ones that suffer the consequences and assigning blame does nothing to ease their plight. Of course the mood is instantly spoiled by the 1st reply that promptly assigns blame to the democratic president that's been in office for 2 months to the day and the democratic congressional leadership that's been in the majority for only 2 of the last 14 years and all but 2 months of those 2 years as a minimal majority under the "leadership" of a republican president.

So if you want to address the problem without regard to partisan politics then that's fine but if not then it's very clear whose doorstep this particular illegitimate baby gets laid.

Mumblefratz yeah its all rep fualt hey? yeah...i mena never mind bus tried to set some oversite on the banks... which was shot down by...you guessed it the Dems.

 

In fact your buddy Clinton ( I would assume you are a clinton lover for the simple fact your swinging off BO's you know what ) eased the regualtions even further than what carter originally set it up for. And THEN you go off as far as saying the bush was a rep... HAHAHAAAAAA.... yeah right. He gave up that title as soon as he started spending like a fish....

 

 

Wanna know where that debt comes from? MORE STUPID gov programs. Did I mention that most stick and never go away? I hope you like SCHIP.... you know that crap that was to use "smoking" money to fund it... o wait that was already short by a few million smokers right out the gate...who is gonna make up the shortfall? thats right YOU ... and ME and all the others.

 

Like supporting illegals? people having kids and not making a living but instead open their legs and pop out babies like a PEZ despenser? you have no problem with that?

 

Just a few examples..... YOU can pay my tab too mkay? I like less gov and for petes sakes let us think for ourselves. And if you think gov spending is going to come under control...boy you got another thing coming.

 

I suppose your not in the top 5% that is gonna get raped in taxes either so you really dont give 2 hoots about it either. Dont worry though... when you see your job cut dont come crying for I wont have no pitty for you whatso ever. Starve on the street for all I care for its people like you that dont see issues with gov spending that made you own bed.

Hmm ... been drinking?

I generally don't comment on someone's spelling and grammar but yours seems unusually incoherent this evening, but no problem, your intent is easily discernable.

Actually I did like Clinton although not for the reason you mention. I’m basically a bottom line kind of guy. I do in fact understand that a president is not really responsible for everything that happens on his “watch” but that’s how I evaluate a president and a particular party’s performance. If times are good then I favor those in power, if times suck then I want to throw the bums out. A pretty simple concept that you should be able to understand even in your inebriated state.

Call him whatever you like, after all it was you and people like you that elected him, twice.

Actually I’m very much against illegal immigration but I don’t think that we need to spend billions on the problem. The problem can be easily solved by fining companies caught employing illegal aliens $100,000 per illegal worker. If you started enforcing that policy this week there would be no illegal aliens in this country by next week and you wouldn’t need to build a fence or employ tens of thousands of border patrol agents. Problem solved.

That’s OK. I’ll pay my taxes and you can pay yours. If you don’t care to then I’m sure there’s a nice cell waiting for you at Leavenworth. You might actually meet a better class of people that way.

According to the latest available data that I could find you need an AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) of at least $153,542 to qualify as the top 5% and on that basis I qualify by a comfortable margin (http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html, Table 7).

Thank you for your concern but I actually have enough money to stop working tomorrow if I so chose. I certainly am not as well off as some here but my financial future is pretty much assured. How are you doing? I hope you’re not spending your entire paycheck on alcohol and scratch tickets.

I thought Obama had just taken on the job, rather than having been the president for the last 8 years...

Funny how some people here seem so quick to condemn Obama for everything wrong at the moment when he's had only a couple of months in the job, yet often start frothing at the mouth if you dare point out that Bush was the one in power for the last 8 years.

If you don't like the taxes paid in the US, feel free to move to some other country with a tax system you like mkay?

 

Back to the original post, I think it's important for the government to step in and make sure that people who want to work and are trying to work, but can't, should be supported so they (and any children they have) can survive. Not only would such a policy help save lives (and give a massive improvement to others by stopping extreme cases of children being homeless) but it'd have a nice side effect of stimulating the economy and helping bring this recession to an end a bit quicker - certainly better than handing a big wad of money to some car makers to make something no-one wants, or giving it to the banks that helped cause this mess.

Amen to that.

I'm not in total agreement with the 'stimulus' package but it's clear that to do nothing is unacceptable. My own personal opinion is that you need to protect people not organizations. I would think that the total expenditures could be kept to a more limited amount by focusing on unemployment benefits and cobra support so that folks can maintain their health insurance coverage. The organizations could then be left to survive or die on their own merits and as long as individuals had a way to survive then the recession/depression will work itself out eventually just like they always have in the past.

The thing is that for stimulus to be effective it must be spent. There is no more effective way to insure that the stimulus be spent than to give the money to those that need it for the most basic of needs, to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

There are certainly complicating factors in regard to such things as the automotive industry. After all do you want to count on Toyota to supply our tanks in a time war or perhaps China will be happy to supply them? But the idea that we throw tons of money to prop up banking *organizations* for zero apparent benefit but balk at supporting the auto industry that actually produces something is ridiculous.

I see doing nothing as unacceptable as well.  Every sector of our societies is being affected.  This is not good.

Update your chart, looks like they were off by almost 2 Trillion dollars. LINK

I guess Obama's goal it to get it to the Carter Administration levels. What a wonderful time that was to be a worker/taxpayer. Imagine all the crying if folks today had the 17% mortgage rates of that time.

Often said, but unsupported.  Sometimes a Hippocratic approach makes the most sense.