Interesting tidbit about Obama and the economy, if anyone is interested.
Obama poured a 700 Billion Stimulus bill into the Economy, GDP went from ~-6% to ~+3.5%

J.F. Kennedy poured a 5 Billion plan into the economy, and had the same result.

Make of that what you will.

BEA.gov will give you the exact numbers, if you're interested, least so far as GDP goes.

LIFE WITHOUT WORK IS NO LIFE AT ALL

To all the democrats/republicans attacking each other:  Learn to pick your fights; there are better things to do.
FYI, any one of the following could be considered one of the biggest embarrassments in US history: the tactical decisions about Iraq, handling Katrina, increasing the national debt, politically polarizing the country, and economic decisions of that led to where we are today.  All happened under the Bush administration. 
The Bush administration was a disgrace to republican ideals and American ideals in general.  To label something conservative does not make it that.  I don’t like having to fix stupid things from the past but I have no grounding blaming Conservatives.

Blaming two individual presidents for the downfall of the U.S. is pretty stupid too....
were the ones that put both into office. You can say you didn't vote for wither canadate.....but that still implies that you dont want to have responsibility for the other things you did vote for. To say that one is not responsible because whatever you voted for didn't happen to pass (or get elected to office) is not a correct statement.

If your not happy with a party, then create your own party (see pirate party). Im just saying.
Blaming government for your problems will do you no good because we can be government.

People forget that the government is a body of people. They are elected representatives of the masses, not leader who alone decide what will happen. There's no magical force that corrupts or saves the world; it's all about people.

@MES THANK YOU!

Alot of Ppl like to take stuff like this and say Its the government trying to control our minds and lives,and blah blah blah. I just thought I go ahead and deal with anything that had to do with that before It came up.

@ Timothy (Kevin Jonas?):
You have a strong dislike of the health care reform. So what would you do differently?
I don't accept a free lunch, ever. What do you not like about it; I want to know more so I can address the issue from multiple perspectives. Just get to the issue and don't throw out more 'Socialist Nazi' c***.

I know I'm not Timothy, but I'd like to add my opinion on this.

The reason, I personally don't think that the Health Care reform is good for America, is what's happening in England with their Universal Health Care.  They have a maximum wait of 4 hours in the emergency room, and that doesn't include a 5 hour wait in the Ambulance as well.  9 hour wait to get treated isn't that good if you ask me.  And they also wash the bed sheets every other visitor, so if the patient before you had a deadly infection that was contagious then you're out of luck.

The real way to solve this, would be to allow a cross state program for private sector Health Care companies.  Basically what it does, is it lets the company sell their Health Care at the same rate in a different state as the state they're in right now.  And that creates competition, what competition does is it, forces companies to make changes and lower Health Care Prices (gasp!).  And ultimately, we'd have very good affordable health care to choose from.

I don't honestly know if our health care will be as bad as England's. but it still could happen.  But really, which option sounds better to you?

That's true but there are countries with public healthcare that are treating their citizens well. Japan is a great example. They have private hospitals, that are paid by the state. That's how they make it work.



I agree with this point though. But the private sector doesn't know how to run it either actually. I mean their lobby has been pushing bills that increase the costs of care dramatically.



The effects of the stimulus bill, like all economic policy changes a president can make/propose, take a very long time, usually a minimum of 3-4 years, to the show effects. Bill Clintons economic policies near the end of his term started to effect our economy negatively in GWB's term.



It is needed, for a few reasons. Currently if you get sick, you get punished dramatically by private healthcare, that's mostly what public healthcare is about. It's not about people not getting care, it's about the private sector giving people many incentives to not even seek care from actual doctors, to not have insurance, especially young people. This generation doesn't care about having insurance anymore because it costs in the mid 100's if you've had 1 non-life threatening surgery in your life, like me. I had ankle surgery, my company pays my health insurance thankfully, but if it didn't it would cost me 156 bucks a month because of pre-existing conditions and complications possible from that. And I can't get treated for many thing. Just because I had a 2 month gap in coverage.



You don't have to wait for weeks in Britain, or in Japan. Why? Because they have private hospitals. In Canada the hospitals are public organizations, like public schools. Government can run economic systems, they just can't run a business. The IRS and post office are great examples of that. Those are federal responsibilities. HealthCARE coverage is NOT the same as the post office or irs or schools in how it is ran. The reason Canada fails is because they have no incentive to make their hospital run smoothly, and rush patients along.

You can't spend your way out of a recession.  It's like trying to get sober by drinking more alcohol, it's not going to work.

The bail out is not going to work, that's just it.

What evidence of other countries, or actual attempted policies that are similar are there to base this belief on?

The Bail out has never been used in history before.  But look what it's done, it's tripled our national debt to 3 trillion dollars, and the unemployment rate continues to rise.  In 1 year we'll still be in this situation, unless we go by what our Founding Fathers implemented for our nation.

I'd really be interested to see how everything turns out in a year.

I dislike Healthcare Reform because it is SOCIALIST and COMMUNISTIC and COUNTRY-DESTROYING. Every other country has universal healthcare, this is one reason we're better than them. Do you want Obama to take that away along with your guns and rights?

Again, the New Deal?

I can't find the guy who wrote something on the subject, but basically he described how a government spent money building an ocean steamboat, then followed the money; wages for the workers, for the material, for the crew. The people earning this money then spent it on things, which gives money to new people, who buy things, etc.

In the end, the boat has earned its cost through taxes, etc., creating jobs on the way.

"I dislike Healthcare Reform because it is SOCIALIST and COMMUNISTIC and COUNTRY-DESTROYING"  How did health care impact the country 7 years before it was introduced and Obama became president?
Do you believe the country's been doing better than other countries the last 8 years? 

I will defend my rights and health care does not have to threaten them.  Anything is subject to corruption, healthcare is no exception, that's why I'm getting a wide, educated perspective about it.  I am seriously watching, monitoring and influencing it.  This is not black and white.

And how is this worse than Halliburton's provisioning of US troops in Iraq?  No bid, they had no competition getting the LOGCAP troop support contract.  This is when gas was climbing to $4.00 a gallon too.  Here's a government archive link, not second hand source:
http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2687&catid=44:legislation

Have you read the 'Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act' of 2001, AKA USA PATRIOT Act?  Here's the bill:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:*publ056.107.pdf
Here's the page that link was on:
http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/patriot/index.html

Tell me these^ are legit capitalist processes.  Why is stopping, and not influencing, a system to help people a higher priority than those?  To blame healthcare for destroying the country is short sighted if you exclude the past decade of US history.

I know someone who went to a hospital in an ambulance, was there for a few hours, received no treatment besides standard injury checking and the process cost over $3,000 + $1,400 for the ambulance ride.  How do you expect American industry to hold up when primary treatment can financially cripple a family?  If you don't want the healthcare reform to pass, than what do you suggest for working class Americans?  Do you have a better idea?
 
Who said anything about guns?  Stay on topic.

Have you actually looked up political ideology?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum

Edit: remove the '*' from that PATRIOT act link^.  It was putting a symbol in.

Yeah, Timothy is trolling. I hope

Don't you DARE call me a troll, you foreigners know NOTHING of the INJUSTICE going on over here!

Our president is OUT TO GET US. HE WILL DRIVE AMERICA, THE GREATEST COUNTRY GOD HAS EVER GIVEN TO MANKIND ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, INTO THE GROUND TO BRING HIM CLOSER TO HIS GOAL OF A NEW WORLD ORDER.

^ I'm part of this country too.  I see it for what it is and work from there.
Apparently I placed false hope in continuing the conversation.  If you support your beliefs of how things are than prove me wrong.
"Our president is OUT TO GET US. HE WILL DRIVE AMERICA, THE GREATEST COUNTRY GOD HAS EVER GIVEN TO MANKIND ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, INTO THE GROUND TO BRING HIM CLOSER TO HIS GOAL OF A NEW WORLD ORDER."
^This kind of statement will not hold in a debate of any kind.  Be prepared with something that will next time.  People like me and the rest of the world, who you don't agree with are not going away; deal with it.  Outside of this thread I have no hard feelings so let's end this here.

Don't run away, Commie. You're just afraid that I will DESTROY you with my superior logic. OPEN YOUR EYES, SEE PAST OBAMA'S LIES.