Stephanie
Diamond Member
- Jul 11, 2004
- 70,230
- 10,864
- 2,040
dream on...he'll be doubling down on his stupid visions and doesn't care if they are hurting us
SNIP:
Posted 07/23/2013 06:54 PM ET
Mea Culpa: The president is planning a major speech in Illinois Wednesday on economic policy. You don't need a crystal ball to predict what he'll say. But here's what he arguably should say.
My fellow Americans, eight years ago, I stood here on the steps of Knox College to deliver a commencement address, and I took the opportunity to lay out my vision for economic opportunity.
The speech was an indictment of President Bush's idea of a go-it-alone "ownership society." The key to America's greatness, I argued, came from government programs like Social Security, from government regulations, and from government spending. Collective action was the beating heart of the American experiment, I said.
Two and half years later, events seemed to prove me right. The economy stumbled into a deep and prolonged recession that claimed millions of jobs. Everyone, myself included, blamed Bush's deregulation and tax cuts for unleashing a wave of recklessness and greed.
Better still, as president, I had the unique opportunity to put all those ideas I'd espoused here into action unfettered by the opposition party since voters not only handed me the presidency, but huge majorities in the House and Senate.
In two years, we rushed through the biggest government stimulus program in the history of the country nearly $1 trillion. We passed a comprehensive Wall Street reform bill. We enacted ObamaCare.
The stimulus alone, I said at the time, would unleash "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction ... ignite spending by businesses and consumers" and bring "real and lasting change for generations to come."
But now I realize I was wrong. About everything.
The recession wasn't caused by deregulation and tax cuts. Bush actually added regulations faster than any president before. And his tax cuts were starting to stimulate jobs and growth once they took full effect in 2003.
The mortgage meltdown wasn't the result of too little government, but too much. The government tried to boost homeownership by forcing banks to lower their lending standards. That, in turn, caused a massive housing bubble that eventually had to burst.
And my grand experiment in Keynesian economics turned out to be a monumental failure.
We ran deficits that topped $1 trillion for four years. We spent billions on roads. We expanded food stamps and unemployment. We tried "Cash for Clunkers" to goose car sales. We piled on subsidies to higher education. We raised taxes on the "rich."
all of it here
Read More At Investor's Business Daily: Here's The Economic Speech Obama Ought To Give At Knox College - Investors.com
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
SNIP:
Posted 07/23/2013 06:54 PM ET
Mea Culpa: The president is planning a major speech in Illinois Wednesday on economic policy. You don't need a crystal ball to predict what he'll say. But here's what he arguably should say.
My fellow Americans, eight years ago, I stood here on the steps of Knox College to deliver a commencement address, and I took the opportunity to lay out my vision for economic opportunity.
The speech was an indictment of President Bush's idea of a go-it-alone "ownership society." The key to America's greatness, I argued, came from government programs like Social Security, from government regulations, and from government spending. Collective action was the beating heart of the American experiment, I said.
Two and half years later, events seemed to prove me right. The economy stumbled into a deep and prolonged recession that claimed millions of jobs. Everyone, myself included, blamed Bush's deregulation and tax cuts for unleashing a wave of recklessness and greed.
Better still, as president, I had the unique opportunity to put all those ideas I'd espoused here into action unfettered by the opposition party since voters not only handed me the presidency, but huge majorities in the House and Senate.
In two years, we rushed through the biggest government stimulus program in the history of the country nearly $1 trillion. We passed a comprehensive Wall Street reform bill. We enacted ObamaCare.
The stimulus alone, I said at the time, would unleash "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction ... ignite spending by businesses and consumers" and bring "real and lasting change for generations to come."
But now I realize I was wrong. About everything.
The recession wasn't caused by deregulation and tax cuts. Bush actually added regulations faster than any president before. And his tax cuts were starting to stimulate jobs and growth once they took full effect in 2003.
The mortgage meltdown wasn't the result of too little government, but too much. The government tried to boost homeownership by forcing banks to lower their lending standards. That, in turn, caused a massive housing bubble that eventually had to burst.
And my grand experiment in Keynesian economics turned out to be a monumental failure.
We ran deficits that topped $1 trillion for four years. We spent billions on roads. We expanded food stamps and unemployment. We tried "Cash for Clunkers" to goose car sales. We piled on subsidies to higher education. We raised taxes on the "rich."
all of it here
Read More At Investor's Business Daily: Here's The Economic Speech Obama Ought To Give At Knox College - Investors.com
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
