Economic Crisis 2009

The economic "crisis" of 2009 has been mischaracterized in the press and by the government. 

For starters, President Obama likes to blame the "failed policies of the past 8 years" and particularly "the Bush tax cuts." That couldn't be farther from the truth. The tax cuts are actually what fueled the economic good times during his administration, and they held off the recession that would have otherwise come much sooner. 

President Bush certainly has a share of the blame, though, because he signed all those wasteful spending bills full of pork. In fact, he didn't veto anything until the waning days of his administration. Then, he went so far as to push for the massive financial industry "bailout", which was exactly the wrong thing to do. Better to let those banks fail and let the economy start the process of recovery than to keep propping things up and subsidizing companies that can't survive on their own due to bad decisions. 

 The Republicans sold their souls by spending like crazy while they were in power in Congress, which is really why they lost the majority. If people are going to get wasteful spending, anyway, the Republicans lose their advantage over the Democrats. 

Unfortunately, the Democrats have only done a worse job, but they keep blaming the Republicans, and people somehow keep believing them. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Ried, and other Democratic leaders in Congress have just made things worse with the legislation they have pushed through. 

 Now, President Obama hasn't brought "change we can believe in" to the problem, either. No, he has continued to try to spend borrowed money, driving our national debt into the stratosphere (like it wasn't too big already). 

Individuals, companies, cities, and states all know that going deeper into debt is a recipe for disaster, not a way to get out of financial problems. Why doesn't the federal government understand that? Why don't people recognize the insanity of that approach?  

It didn't work for FDR during the Great Depression. Statistics prove that the programs tried in the 30s only lengthened the depression and slowed job creation as compared to the rest of the world at the time. Back then the U.S. was a creditor nation, had a trade surplus, had very little consumer debt, was energy independent, and had a dollar based on a gold standard. Now the U.S. is a debtor nation, has a trade deficit, has massive consumer debt, imports much of its energy, and has a dollar based on nothing but faith in the U.S. government. 

Our economy can't absorb the massive government spending increases as well as we could in the 30s, yet we're borrowing even more and setting up the house of cards to fall. 

 On top of it, Obama, Pelosi, and Ried have structured the economic "stimulus" package to not only spend a ton of money that we don't have but to spend it foolishly on things that don't stimulate the economy at all. Instead, they rushed through a package that includes every "liberal" proposal that has been voted down over the past 40 years without even giving lawmakers time to read the bill, and then the president signed it into law, committing us to a radical shift in American policies and spending priorities virtually overnight that will stay with us for at least a generation.  

Isn't it interesting how quickly conservative movements like the Reagan Revolution can be swept away, only one generation after taking place, while liberal movements like the New Deal can survive for several generations and then get amplified in a relative blink of an eye?