gergroy said:
bluesinG said:
gergroy said:
GameOver22 said:
Quick question: In regards to the economy, what would you have preferred him to do with the supermajority? As far as I remember, the stimulus was already passed, so I don't think its realistic to expect him to try and pass another stimulus or tax break at the time, especially given how contentious passing the stimulus was just a few months previosly. Granted, its a lot easier to look back in hindsight and say something else should have been done, but I think they would have had a difficult time mustering support (talking public support) for more economic measures (that raised the deficit) at the time.
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Honestly, doing nothing would have been better than what they did. They ended up passing a tax on small businesses in the middle of a recession, who does that? Maybe they were thinking the economy would recover soon and it wouldn't matter. However, it is obvious now that Obama's initial plan on economic recovery was not enough. The economy has been essentially stagnate for the last four years. If there isn't a huge uptick in the economy by the time that tax hits those businesses, we are going to be in for another big recession.
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Really?
This graph ends in mid-2011, and the private sector has added jobs every month since then.
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I didn't say we were in a recession, I said we were in a stagnate economy. Those job numbers are anemic and our workforce has shrunk. That isn't a healthy economy, it is stagnate.
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I didn't say that you said we were still in a recession. :)
You said that (a) it would have been better for the government to do nothing than to do what they did (the stimulus and Obamacare), and (b) the government raised taxes on small business in the middle of a recession.
The graph was to get at point (a). When Obama came into office, the economy was losing about 800,000 jobs *per month*. Then Obama and the Democrats passed the stimulus. Then the economy emerged from recession and started adding jobs again. Without the stimulus, I believe that the recession would have been longer and deeper. Most economists agree with that.
As for taxes, the stimulus *cut* taxes for both individuals and businesses, in order to promote economic growth. I'm not sure exactly which part of Obamacare you're referring to as a tax on small businesses, but presumably it's a provision that doesn't kick in until 2014, not something that raised taxes "in the middle of the recession."
