This is Obama's economy

Reader comment on: Food Stamp Nation
in response to reader comment: This is Bush's economy still

Submitted by Fast Eddie (United States), Aug 3, 2011 20:14

When he took office in January 1981, Ronald Reagan inherited the mess left behind by 4 years of Jimmy Carter and his abysmally stupid economic policies. I can't recall a single liberal/progressive saying at that time that it was still "Carter's economy." From Day One, it was Reagan's economy and he sure as hell did not attempt to fix it by by carpet bombing the economy with a Trillion dollar stimulus. Unlike our current chief executive, Reagan claimed the economy was his responsibility and the result was a very robust and long lasting recovery.

The current economy became Obama's when he and the Democrats, who controlled both the House and Senate, deliberately went on an unprecedented party-line-vote spending binge, telling all of us that the 'multiplier effect' (i.e., $1.50 of growth for every $1.00 spent) of such Keynesian spending would have unemployment under 8% in a year. And it's worth noting that even big stimulus fans, such as Krugman, have criticized Obama's spending on the grounds that it was mostly misdirected and ineffective. Krugman somehow forgot, and continues to forget, that govt. spending is a political process, not an academic process, and therefore will always be profoundly inefficient and ineffective.

When I see people claim that it's still "Bush's economy" I am moved to rename Obama as "President Helpless" because, even with control of both houses of Congress when he came to office, he still, so they say, could not exert enough control over the economy with his administration's policies that it became his economy.

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