“‘We are not standing on the brink of recession due to forces beyond our control,’ Obama said in excerpts of a speech at a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis. ‘The fallout from the housing crisis that's cost jobs and wiped out savings was not an inevitable part of the business cycle. It was a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington.’”
The implications being made by Mr. Obama in the above quote are very strong. It is likely that he was simply playing to the crowd and telling them what they wanted to hear, although I wonder if he really believes what he is saying. Personally I don’t think Obama, McCain, or Clinton would have had the wherewithal to foresee what was going to happen, let alone prevent it. To imply that he would have known better seems just a little far-fetched to me.
I guess that is how the political game gets played, though: tell the people what they want to hear and they will vote for you. After all, once you get elected it doesn’t really matter. You can just make excuses on why your campaign promises didn’t happen. Not that I’m bitter or anything about politicians in general...moving on...
From what I can gather about Obama’s economic policies, my opinion is that they are the worst of all the presidential candidates (In terms of the overall benefit to the economy). Obama is proposing the highest amount of new spending (see Presidential Candidate Budget Analysis), and much of it is dedicated to social programs. While providing health care for millions of Americans would be great, in terms of what’s best for the economy it probably doesn’t make the list.
To pay for these budget increases (albeit only partially), Obama is planning to let the Bush tax cuts expire. The Bush tax cuts do strongly favor the wealthy—which is why Obama wants to get rid of them—but they also have proven to stimulate the economy. Removing those tax cuts and funding health care will help many Americans desperately in need, but in purely economic terms it will probably only make things worse.
Labels: economy
