I agree that it might have taken longer to get out of the recession...(though I still think that we are in the recession) However all that has happened is at best a bandaid affect. What should have happened is to let those big corporations fail and collapse. Yes that would have meant harder times. But I think it would have been better in the long run.
Big corporations have a tendency to stomp out the little guys. Half the time without even realizing it. This leads to monopolies, which in turn leads to stagnation because theres no real competition to make the corporation try to stay on top. By letting those corporations fall it would have allowed more competition to surface. Which is good for the common consumer. Competition means lower prices, which in turn means more spending because people can afford <X item here>.
This post is of course just a small part of why I think Gov spending in the middle of a recession is bad. I won't get into more of it as this is neither the thread, nor do I really feel like getting into such a debate.
First, realize that I am a deficit hawk. I think it is a significant problem that needs to be fixed, and we should only run deficits when the economy sucks. Want to get that out front.
Now, There are two things to realize with what both Bush and Obama did with relation to the recession. First: deficit spending is, if handled, a short term problem, even when quite large. The economy grows at ~ 3 % per quarter, which means that in the short term, you can simply grow and the spending becomes a smaller problem.
The other important thing to realize is that when the recession hit, and when things went bad, the potential was for a complete "meltdown" of our economy, causing huge problems for many years to come. That is a huge thing to gamble on and take chances with. If you act, you get a large chunk of debt, but that is a solvable problem. If you don't act, you may, but maybe not, have the economy of the US become essentially nonfunctional. Would you want to roll those dice? I don't think I would.
You are right, spending is a bandaid, but bandaids do serve a purpose. The problem is not that Obama spent alot, but that Obama spent alot, and the presidents(and congresses, and to an extent those who elected them) before him did not have the courage to take care of the problem when times where good. If going into the recession the budgets had been balanced, the spending would be no big deal. Since it was not, it makes fixing things all the harder. However, I do think it is still fixable, and I think the spending to keep things from being any worse than they are now was the right call.
What does have to happen, and we no longer can accept any excuses, is that going forward we do have to fix the deficit. The next recession we cannot go into it with a deficit like we have now.