Obama has saved the economy, says E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post.
Of course, her article is short on facts and is based on the assertion of the Prime Minister of Australia, an unabashed Obama fan.
The only coherent point she makes is that it is hard to prove you prevented something from happening. So, the claim is that if Obama (and ostensibly George W. Bush, who Dionne will not praise, though she will repeat the praise of her new favorite Australian) had not acted, we would have been in a global depression. But since he "stimulated" the economy, we avoided such a tragic fate.
Of course, one must question the veracity of these claims.
1) we will never know if we would have been in a depression without government intervention. Many economists stated way back in September 2008 that we were not headed for a depression, even if the government allowed every bank and insurance company to fail.
2) Obama's "stimulus" plan appropriated $787 billion, of which only $70 billion have been spent - if $70 billion was enough to rescue the economy, why did we need a $787 billion bill?
3) Obama claimed the deficit would be $9.3 trillion over ten years if he had done nothing, and now admits that the deficit will be just as much despite his actions.
4) Obama promised that the stimulus plan would create 4 million jobs and would keep unemployment below 8% - it is now 9.5% despite Obama's programs.
5) When Obama went to the European leaders and demanded they all increase government spending to ease the economic problems, he was flatly rejected by France, Germany, Spain, China, etc. None of them could afford it. All of those countries are now showing economic growth over the last quarter. The US, which undertook more government spending, continues to see its economy shrink.
So, what has Obama done to save the economy exactly?
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2 comments:
If we avoided such a tragic fate, why are we the third-most-debt-ridden country in the world? If we avoided such a tragic fate, why are we among the three countries who have yet to recover from the recession?
We technically couldn't afford government spending, either, just like the countries who refused Obama, which is why our economy is still shrinking. America should have refused Obama, too... Back in November.
Liberals say spending is the key to recovery. They say "Just look at the Great Depression!" I say, "Um, I pretty much am looking at it." Not really, but close enough. I still can't believe people are convinced that spending will fix everything. People, it SOMETIMES fixes things for a SHORT time. But then you're in the same mess years later. Vicious cycle.
Obama didn't save the economy. He SPENT it.
What did Obama do to save the economy?
Come on. You know this one.
He talked pretty to it, said all the right things, and it decided not to collapse.
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