I'm gonna make a confession that may blow some people away. Ready for it? Here it goes.
I understand the points Conservative has been trying to make concerning the Obama Stimulus of 2009. Truth be told, it didn't generate as much revenue via wealth creation in the private sector as say Reagan's economic policies did between 1983-1986 or GWB's direct-consumer stimulus of 2008. But here's where Conservative misses the mark completely: The Obama Stimulus wasn't designed to bring about rapid economic growth nor could it have. NOT because it was a bad plan because most economist say it didn't allocate enough money to really have a large impact in a short period of time. Rather, the Obama Stimulus was intended to "stop the bleeding" and by all accounts it did just that.
Reagan's stimulus was through tax cuts and tax incentives mostly to the upper income brackets and through federal programs that forged public-private partnerships to build up the "military industrial complex". Overall, it did work to increase GDP, but it also did two other things which most Conservative Republicans refuse to acknowledge:
1) Increased the poverty rate.
2) Increased the debt and deficit.
GWB's stimulus was intended to "prevent the current economic downturn from ballooning into an economic crisis". And while it did help briefly, we all know how things wound up. FINANCIAL CHAOS at the end of his Presidency. Not his fault, mind you. No one - not even our largest commercial investment firms - knew collectively just how bad things were (mostly because each too big to fail bank were too territorial, defending their own turf which aggressive and greedy competition within industries tends to do).
So, along comes the Obama Stimulus which focuses more money on federal programs that Congress wanted. As I read (the bulk of) the Stimulus Bill years ago, I came to realize that a vast amount of the money went to:
1) Government programs designed to get the money into businesses that forged public-private partnerships.
2) States that foster government spending at their level.
3) Private enterprises that conducted research and development for future industrial development and economic growth.
Folks can visit Recovery. gov to see where stimulus money was allocated and spending took place in their state if they care to know. (BTW,
Texas received ALOT! $15,602,390,000 worth and only created a reported 4,231 jobs. Just thought you should know.)
My point is each stimulus plan was different and each sought a different kind of recovery. Moreover, each had different results. But regardless of the outcome, it's wrong to say that the Obama Stimulus didn't work because the truth is, it did! It may not have had the same results many Conservatives have come to expect from federal stimulus programs, i.e., rapid economic growth as reflected by an uptic in GDP, but it did work. (And yes,
TARP (as restructured under Pres. Obama) helped alot, too).
Now, back to the main focus of this thread, towit, the SOUA...Oh, wait. That topic morphed into "abuse of Executive Power"....my bad.
Carry on.
...:roll: