Originally Posted By: Alfa Romeo
Quote:
Interesting that you don't include a single Obama created expense. Nothing about the Affordable Care Act, nothing about his foreign interventions, nothing about anything. So evidently you believe that Obama has not added a cent to increase the national debt. Is that part of an honest discussion?


Faith, I purposely left Obama out because I didn't want my reply to take on the flavor of "my president has a bigger dick than your president". But I'll address each point you mentioned as best I can...

The Affordable Care Act was originally forecasted to lower deficits for the foreseeable future. Now the Congressional Budget Office is saying that there have been so many delays in implementing it, and that the law has become so complex, that it's not possible at this time to say whether it will have a net positive or net negative effect on the annual budget.

Wars. The Obama administration, as well as the majority of the left and middle in politics, approves of American intervention in Afghanistan against terroristic elements. Therefore the costs of waging war in Afghanistan was and is considered to be a necessity.

TARP? The worldwide depression that was taking shape at the beginning of Obama's term in office needed drastic intervention. Right away the Obama administration bailed out the banks and automakers. The economy was in free fall when Obama took the reigns. I remember reading about thousands of layoffs per month. It is said that in late 2008, hundreds of thousands of people were being laid off....per month. If we listen to the rabid punditry, the lay offs stopped on their own and the Obama administration had nothing to do with it.

Why were the automakers bailed out? Because the big three automakers were said to represent about 3 million jobs. I remember it being said very precisely that if all three folded, 3 million jobs would be gone. Those probably represented auto industry jobs, as well as all of the jobs in the local economies where the automakers were headquartered and entrenched.

The bailouts costed money. Did the bailouts add to the deficit and debt, yeah probably. Were they necessary? Everyone involved in the decision making process across two presidential administrations seems to think so.


Alfa, you're a thoughtful and intelligent young man, but I would like for you to consider the following in regards to some of your above points. I think what you'll find is quite to the contrary.
ACA was only forecast to curb costs by Obama and absolutely nobody else...the CBO said it would increase costs dramatically and it has by hundreds of percents in many cases...ask anybody who is paying for their own insurance....and they will continue to rise, unless it is repealed.
The wars were what they were...I think we can have an honest debate both ways on them and not sure which side would win..honestly.
TARP was a joke from its inception, only aiding to bail out the cronies who were about to lose their ass--ets...and that, my friend, cut both ways...benefiting both Democrats and Republicans...and by that, I mean the big money people, not the rank and file citizens.
As far as the auto bail outs...those were strictly union paybacks in which shareholders were stiffed out of millions in a bankruptcy action which was unprecedented in US history, as shareholders are always supposed to be first in line as creditors until Obama decided to make the UAW co-owners in an endeavor in which they had no investment...purely unbelievable. And furthermore, that "loan" bailout money has never been paid back...it was paid off with another backdoor bailout so that Obama could run around saying the loan was paid off...not even close. And guess who is making out the best of the big 3 automakers...Ford...the only one who refused bailout money.