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Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
The Democrats, on the other hand, complained that Reagan ran up the biggest National Debt in history. Obama's is a lot bigger.
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Actually, the debt Obama has now was inherited from Bush in October 2008. As for Reagan, I don't know who's been saying that (I'd like to find out) nor do I know how they figured this up. While the debt did increase during the Regan-Bush era, and continued to do so throughout the Clinton era, the greatest increase came under George Jr.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-..._b_132732.html
On the day President Bush took office, the national debt stood at $5.727 trillion. The numbers from the Treasury Department in September 2008 showed the national debt then stood at more than $9.849 trillion. That's a 71.9% increase on Mr. Bush's watch.
http://agonist.org/amc/20090123/bush..._national_debt
Right now, the debt stands at $12.759 trillion; not that much of an increase given all the s*** President Obama has had to sift through to try and sort this all out, let alone the national situation he faced when he took office.
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/investheld.html
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/
One of the biggest reasons why we can't recover from the current economic situation we find ourselves in is because we no longer are the industrial, self-sufficient nation that we were during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The reason why we fully recovered from the Great Depression was because we had the manufacturing capabilities to do so and the motivation, following the outbreak of World War II. We had factories people could find jobs in, we manufactured almost all our own stuff (we didn't import things in as great of quantities as we do now), we had regulations on the markets that kept people from buying and taking our more than they could afford and pay back, and perhaps most importantly, there was no organized "global economy" crap going on in the world, with "service countries" and "manufacturing countries", etc.
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/files/events/2009/0309_lessons/0309_lessons_romer.pdf
The stimulus package and the Recovery Act have been doing their jobs, that much is evident despite all the semantics that will try to convince you otherwise. The reason I have found in the years since this began that so many scrutinize these plans and indeed the government is because these plans didn't work and solve the problems they were addressing immediately. But simply put, you cannot have your country in this kind of shape and expect a quick, easy fix of any kind- let alone when you have hardly any industrial/manufacturing self-sufficiency anymore (as a service country in the global economy concept, it's not our job to worry about these things... it's left to countries like China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, etc.). Indeed, that's one of the most important lessons of the Great Depression. Twelve years on from Black Tuesday and we were still in the process of recovering; had we not have had the Second World War to finally get us out of it, who knows how long it would have taken. Perhaps another decade!
Based on data from: Dr. Louis D. Johnston and Prof. Samuel H. Williamson, "What Was the US' GDP: A Historical Report", p.8, 24 April 2006
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Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
I have one small quibble with that picture though: California is listed as giving more than they get? I though Cantafordya was bankrupt.
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Nope.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California
The largest economy of any state in the United States, and is the eighth largest economy in the world.
EDIT: And for the record, Thorvald, it's working out pretty good for me personally.