HOW DID WE GET HERE ?

[kentuck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/opinion/07sun1.html?ref=opinion

<snip>

When President Bush took office in 2001, the federal budget had been in the black for three years, and continued surpluses were projected for a decade to come.

By the time Mr. Bush left office in early 2009, the government had run big deficits for seven straight years, and the economy was on the brink of another Great Depression. On Jan. 7, 2009 — two weeks before Mr. Obama was inaugurated — the Congressional Budget Office issued new budget estimates showing a fiscal year 2009 deficit of well over $1 trillion.

About half of today’s huge deficits can be chalked up to Bush-era profligacy: mainly cutting taxes deeply while borrowing to wage two wars and to enact the Medicare prescription drug benefit — all of which Republicans supported, virtually in lockstep.

The other half of recent deficits is due to the recession and the financial crisis.

To avoid a meltdown, the government — under President Bush and President Obama — rightly decided it had no choice but to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out banks and car companies and to stimulate the economy. That prevented a very bad situation from becoming much worse, but as the recession dragged on, hundreds of billions in tax revenues have also dried up.

As for why the financial system and the economy imploded, President Bush and Congress deserve much of the blame for their devotion to debt-driven growth and blind deregulatory zeal — although on deregulation, President Clinton and his team (some of whom are back in the White House) were also complicit.

..........more

[Cleita]

1. Widespread corruption when the corporations were finally able to

get their "boys" in positions of power. They really don't want government and I bet if they manage to destroy the USA, they will divide territories up like medieval warlords with the rest of us as serfs. Cities and towns will be come "company towns" where everyone who lives in them works for the company and for peripheral service business that will be allowed in. No one else will be able to live in them. Housing is assigned to you and you buy from the company stores. If you get laid off or fired they kick you and your family out of your house and out of town. One way of dealing with you is if you become "bandits" because of desperation, you will end up in prison. They like it that way. Takes care of another pesky problem. Politicians are bought off and if they get problematic, they are taken care of too. I know. I grew up in a company town.

[Autumn]

2. Excellent article

K/R

[Parche]

3. i would rather blame Obama, because he is in office NOW

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

fukin republicans :hi:

[kentuck]

4. It doesn't matter how big the mess or how severe the condition left...

Barack Obama should be able to clean it all up in one year. Every conservative knows that. Just ask them.

[librechik]

5. F you, NYT

cutting SS benefits is not the answer. Tax Wall Street exchanges. Tax the banks. Tax the rich. A VAT is the issue that led to the Revolutionary War, do you really want to do that?

Get money into the hands of those who spend it, not those who hoard it in murky investment strategies that starve our infrastructure. Medicare for All with the ability to fix pricing structures is essential, both for holding down health costs and providing employment for millions. More food stamps, rent subsidies, increase and extend unemployment benefits. Those are REAL stimulus programs.

Thanks for placing the blame on the Repubs, where it properly lies. But get a grip--and get rid of foreign ownership of our institutions. They have no interest in our success, only our submission.