Now, of course, it'd be easy to say he was being disingenuous, because he knew that Congress wouldn't ever approve it. But at that point, he didn't know if we'd have an overwhelming Congress majority, or just a bare one. Turns out it was the latter, and to get anything done, we had to woo a few Rs over on every issue.
And then, the Tea Party came along and started (even in early 2009) making congresscritters afraid to offend them lest they be ousted in 2010. Ironically, they could have voted any way and it would have shook out the same.
No stimulus. SO not crazy. 99% of Rs voted against it. Take a look at this list - it's a little old (March of 2010) and there are far more now who should be added to it, but right there, the hypocrisy is pretty overwhelming.
The Bureau of Labor & Statistics only has data up since 1948. Unemployment was actually higher in 1983 & 1984 (something Republicans like to ignore these days, because Saint Ronnie Did No Wrong!), reaching 10.9. And I remember it well.
All this said - gov't is not the best creator of jobs, and pretty much every economist acknowledges that. Gov't works best at creating good conditions for job growth. This recession had its birth under BushCo, and the biggest hindrences to jobs right now are:
Banks not providing credit to businesses so they can hire
Offshoring of jobs (blame the Rs - it's squarely at their feet)
Increased productivity of US workers. (and that's a "woo, yay" and "oh fuck" stat - productivity is good, but it should increase hiring b/c it should increase sales etc - instead, businesses are just making people work more for no more pay).
Global economic uncertainty.
SO MUCH of this goes right back to the bank meltdown. And so much of that is due to lax regulations, thanks to the Rs taking down the Glass-Stegall Act with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999. After that went through, the restrictions on banks being both lenders and investment institutions went bye-bye, leading to this:
"The repeal of important portions of the Glass-Steagall Act allowed banks to seek high returns by investing money from checking and savings accounts into "creative" and "innovative" financial instruments such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and credit default swaps (CDSs). These risky investments led to the collapse of the financial markets in 2008 and the resulting global financial crisis."
Do I blame Obama? No. It's easy to do so - he's sitting up there,he's an easy target. But for all of this, I place the blame squarely at the feet of Wall Street and the Rs.
And this is what makes me crazy. The Rs today are trying to get the middle class to vote for them, when EVERYTHING they do is injurious to the middle class. And their supporters are all "KEEP TAXCUTS FOR THE TOP 2%!!!" as if it'll help *them*!! It's "aspirational politics" - people are voting for it in the hopes that someday, they'll be Donald Trump or Bill Gates.
They are specifically voting against their own interests.
Now, of course, it'd be easy to say he was being disingenuous, because he knew that Congress wouldn't ever approve it. But at that point, he didn't know if we'd have an overwhelming Congress majority, or just a bare one. Turns out it was the latter, and to get anything done, we had to woo a few Rs over on every issue.
And then, the Tea Party came along and started (even in early 2009) making congresscritters afraid to offend them lest they be ousted in 2010. Ironically, they could have voted any way and it would have shook out the same.
No stimulus. SO not crazy. 99% of Rs voted against it. Take a look at this list - it's a little old (March of 2010) and there are far more now who should be added to it, but right there, the hypocrisy is pretty overwhelming.
The Bureau of Labor & Statistics only has data up since 1948. Unemployment was actually higher in 1983 & 1984 (something Republicans like to ignore these days, because Saint Ronnie Did No Wrong!), reaching 10.9. And I remember it well.
All this said - gov't is not the best creator of jobs, and pretty much every economist acknowledges that. Gov't works best at creating good conditions for job growth. This recession had its birth under BushCo, and the biggest hindrences to jobs right now are:
SO MUCH of this goes right back to the bank meltdown. And so much of that is due to lax regulations, thanks to the Rs taking down the Glass-Stegall Act with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999. After that went through, the restrictions on banks being both lenders and investment institutions went bye-bye, leading to this:
"The repeal of important portions of the Glass-Steagall Act allowed banks to seek high returns by investing money from checking and savings accounts into "creative" and "innovative" financial instruments such as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), mortgage-backed securities (MBSs) and credit default swaps (CDSs). These risky investments led to the collapse of the financial markets in 2008 and the resulting global financial crisis."
Do I blame Obama? No. It's easy to do so - he's sitting up there,he's an easy target. But for all of this, I place the blame squarely at the feet of Wall Street and the Rs.
And this is what makes me crazy. The Rs today are trying to get the middle class to vote for them, when EVERYTHING they do is injurious to the middle class. And their supporters are all "KEEP TAXCUTS FOR THE TOP 2%!!!" as if it'll help *them*!! It's "aspirational politics" - people are voting for it in the hopes that someday, they'll be Donald Trump or Bill Gates.
They are specifically voting against their own interests.
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