There must have been a thousand messages on this board stating everything Obama should not have done to pull the nation out of recession and restore economic growth. How about putting yourself in the oval office and sharing with us what you would have done. The situation is: You have just assumed the office of the President in 2008. The country is officially in a recession. George Bush has just signed into law TARP, a 300 billion dollar financial bailout. The deficit is about 700 billion The stock market has lost 20% of it's value in 3 months Unemployment has increase 45% in last 12 months The fed has driven interest rates down from 4.5% to 1% Economist are predicting unemployment will reach 10% within 6 mos. Income Tax rates have been lowered to lowest point in 80 years. What would you do?
Reregulate the finiancial industry to prevent another finiancial meltdown. Hold the finiancial industry accountable for their actions. Not bail them out. Support FDIC guaranteed deposits and that is it on the banks. Not just throw money at the economy but take a well thought out stimulus that actually built something we need. Promote job training programs, Unemployed? take training to keep benefits. Promote hiring by tax breaks for companies hiring. Do away with tax breaks for companies offshoring jobs and create a tax penalty for those who do. Pull right out of Afganistan and Iraq. Close about 25% of overseas military bases. create real penalties for defrauding medicare/medicaid. ie a 200% penalty for all fraudulent gains. Lets make it so it is not just a cost of doing business to defraud our government. Do away with the bush tax cuts. Overall look at the real causes of this recession and develop plans to build back up.
Well, it's hard to say for sure because we don't know all the facts. Did the bailout really work or not? We aren't privy to all the behind-closed-doors info the president is. The military and CIA intell he gets. We can all say what we "woulda" done, but without all the info, we can't know for sure. However, that doesn't mean we can't say what we would have liked him to do. I would've liked him to aggressively preach to American citizens that they MUST find a way to become more independent. That while government handouts are available, and probably will be for years to come, they aren't guaranteed, and thus, all people must depend on themselves first, their family second, their neighbors third (as in community, church, etc), and at last resort the government. But it seems we are dependent on those 4 in reverse order: 1st Gov't, 2nd Community, 3rd Family, and finally, last resort we depend on ourselves only. For one of the few things I agree with the Obama's have done is Michelle's push to get our people to stop being disgusting fat asses. Now, put that same energy into getting our people to be more independent of government. But a politician saying "Hey, folks, I and my fellow gov't officials can't help you forever, you gotta do it on your own" aren't re-elected often. They get re-elected by promising shit, promising to make life easier for people off the gov't dime.
Repudiating the National Debt Murray Newton Rothbard Repudiating the National Debt - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily .
I am actually more of a true conservative than many on here who think themselves conservatives. With a touch of libertarian thrown in.
I would take a trillion & divide it among Americans to spend locally within one year, and only on US products. I would bring all the troops home, and close the Pentagon doors down to a minimum. I would cut the corporate cord & stop taxing business. Establish a fair tax with no deductions. The 300 billion bailout or any other bailout would not have happened.
