DiscussMormonism.com

A financial crisis is the worst time to change the foundations of American capitalism.

The illusion that Barack Obama will lead from the economic center has quickly come to an end. Instead of combining the best policies of past Democratic presidents -- John Kennedy on taxes, Bill Clinton on welfare reform and a balanced budget, for instance -- President Obama is returning to Jimmy Carter's higher taxes and Mr. Clinton's draconian defense drawdown.

Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.

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New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.

Oh I'd say Obama knows what he's doing. It's just not going to be what America needs or wants. Welcome to Venezuela everyone!

Why "welcome to Venezuela"? If you believed the article to which you linked, you'd be saying, "welcome to Europe!"

Who ever thought Obama was going to lead from the center? A bunch of fools, that's who. The sparse record he had was of his extreme left ideology. You'd think that would have clued in the voters--but no. They knew nothing about him and refused to even look at any possible negative outcomes to an Obama Presidency and now we are all paying.

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Hello.... Obama has been in office for 45 days.

He is not the one who got us in this mess.

How about we give the new administration a little time to see if they can turn things around.

I mean seriously, who in the world thinks anyone can turn this economy (that was destroyed by Bush over many years), around in a matter of weeks. No one. It took eight years to get us to this point, it is not going to turn around in a month or two, or even a year or two for that matter.

Just sayin...

TD, I don't think anyone is criticizing Obama out of an expectation that he should have brought our economy back to stability and prosperity in 45 days. I think we all recognize that no President could do that, regardless of his party affiliation or acumen on economic matters.

The problem is that Obama has taken action in the last 45 days, but from an economic perspective, his actions really look like they will add to the problem and make it worse. To put it bluntly, he and the democratic congress have used the the "economic crisis" as a cover to enact tons of legislation and spend trillions of dollars on issues that have nothing to do with fixing the economy (and ultimately will make it worse).

A good article on the subject was recently published in the Wall Street Journal:

Obama's Radicalism is Killing the Dow.

From the poorly designed stimulus bill and vague new financial rescue plan, to the enormous expansion of government spending, taxes and debt somehow permanently strengthening economic growth, the assumptions underlying the president's economic program seem bereft of rigorous analysis and a careful reading of history.

While stock values aren't the only economic indicator, they are an important one, since the companies on the stock exchanges are the economic engine that run this country. To put it simply, if Obama's policies were really going to help the long-term prospects for our economy, we would see that engine revving, not dipping towards stalling.

"cinepro"

The problem is that Obama has taken action in the last 45 days, but from an economic perspective, his actions really look like they will add to the problem and make it worse. To put it bluntly, he and the democratic congress have used the the "economic crisis" as a cover to enact tons of legislation and spend trillions of dollars on issues that have nothing to do with fixing the economy (and ultimately will make it worse).

Exactly.

Listen to the extremely negative and gloomy language he uses everytime he speaks about our economy, causing much more fear and panic, only exacerbating the problem. I agree with Dick Mooris who stated that Obama is intentionally using that language to get his very liberal agenda passed.

truth dancer wrote:I mean seriously, who in the world thinks anyone can turn this economy (that was destroyed by Bush over many years),

Don't forget to add Bush Sr. to the list.

truth dancer wrote:Hello.... Obama has been in office for 45 days.

He is not the one who got us in this mess.

How about we give the new administration a little time to see if they can turn things around.

I mean seriously, who in the world thinks anyone can turn this economy (that was destroyed by Bush over many years), around in a matter of weeks. No one. It took eight years to get us to this point, it is not going to turn around in a month or two, or even a year or two for that matter.

Just sayin...

The Stock market has lost almost 3,000 points in his 45 days!!!!! There's no Bush to blame this on, This is his doing. The stock market is not a poll. It's REAL money being lost and it is absolutely because he is pushing his bloated 3 trillion budget, bailouts and govt. programs on an already sick economy. He is putting us in a very precarious position by insisting on trying to do all of this RIGHT NOW--refusing to let the economy rebound before pushing all this massive spending and if anything goes wrong on a global scale, if there were a terrorist attack again or another 550 billion dollar run on the banks again, our country will be in a terrible predicament!

We can't afford for him to screw up on a scale of this magnitude!! All he has to do is not try to do everything at the same time, but he wants to push it all right now because he figures that's that only way to insure it happens--he's inexperienced and he's an idealogue and he is taking some very very serious risks and we will be the ones who suffer if his vision and plans turn out to be wrong.

Alter Idem wrote:The Stock market has lost almost 3,000 points in his 45 days!!!!! There's no Bush to blame this on, This is his doing.

The President of the USA is powerful, but I think neither Bush nor Obama can take full credit for what has happened, even in the last 45 days--even in the last month, fortnight, or week.

The stock market is not a poll. It's REAL money being lost and it is absolutely because he is pushing his bloated 3 trillion budget, bailouts and govt. programs on an already sick economy.

I'm quite certain that there's more to it than that. Part of it likely is concern about a bloated govt. bailout program. Yet I recall stocks alos falling when many thought nothing would be done. The market can be fickle in the short term, so I tend to stick with longer trends--even longer than 45 days I'm afraid.

I think part of the concern is that nobody really knows how deep the trouble is. Nobody really knows how many bad loans are out there. Nobody knows how many more buisnesses are going to fail and put people out of work. Nobody knows how many people and buisnesses will decrease spending because of worries. Nobody really knows how Obama's plan will work.

I don't think Obama is going to save the world, but I do think he'll be better at communicating and working with the rest of the world than Bush was. I don't Obama will be any better than McCain would have been in this situation, but neither do I feel the reverse is true. The only thing I think Obama will do better is to work with other nations.

The price tag scares me a little bit, but frankly Social Security and Medcare scare me more especially since it's political suicide to try to address the problem realistically.