President Obama: There Is No Debt Crisis

[SomeGuyInEagan]

37. Classic Keynes ... Krugman said we did NOT put enough in the stimulus (I totally agree)

If the private sector cannot or will not spend (and they clearly can but won't as there has been a massive amount of cash sidelined by business as a whole since 2008), government has to do it. And we did, but in a really wienie way.

What we needed (and many here and elsewhere called for) was true FDR-like programs hitting the ground in the first 100 days of Obama's presidency. Easy argument to make the the roads, bridges, damns (think the bridges are is scary shape? don't even lookin into the damns in this country) and electrical grid need a huge dose of money, not to mention schools. The stimulus should have been triple what it was. The money *handed* to the banks should have *only* been given to them in return for forgiving home loans.

But the party never had a filibuster-proof Senate. And, frankly, I doubt that Obama nor many of the party "leaders" would have swung for the fences in an FDR-like fashion anyway. Far too-business "friendly."

I believe we are a center-left country, situated well to the left of the Democratic party leadership. Perhaps with all the money in politics, that is the only way they can be. But I can dream.