The Stimulus Blame Game - Whose Fault is it, Anyway?

I love how everyone wants to blame the president for the ineffective nature of the stimulus. It has hardly been a few months since it passed. It takes time for these things to work. I know, this is America we're talking about. We're the people who demand everything to happen immediately and if it doesn't we get antsy. Here's why things aren't magically turning around.

If you read the news lately, you'll see that most economists believe there needs to be another stimulus because the last one was not big enough. They also are critical of the fact that such a huge chunk of that money went towards tax credits. Does anyone even understand what that means? If you get a $1000 tax credit, that means they subtract $1000 from your taxable income. So, you might see a few hundred dollars back at most, and where do you think you're going to spend that money? Are you going to buy a new car with that? Are you going to buy a new house with that? No. You're going to pay off your debts on your current house and current car. That does nothing to stimulate the economy.

President Obama had plenty of funds allocated for education and other social services. You know why they didn't make it through to the actual stimulus? Republicans. I don't mean to sound like the usual liberal broken record, but it's true. The Republicans pushed to cut "pork" out from the stimulus and they demanded that there be billions put towards these tax credits. The vast majority of economists know that these tax credits don't do anything. To a politician, however, it is an excellent tactic to gain support from their constituencies who don't understand what it actually means. More support for them means reelection. They're not going to listen to the unpopular views of the "educated elite" if it will cost them votes.

I really wish there had been a few billion dollars in the stimulus to mandate economics classes for all Americans. I am an English major who hates math, and even I understand this stuff because I've read up on commentaries from actual economists, whose jobs are to study these things so we don't get into these types of situations. Sadly, people like Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber keep preaching to the "real America" that these "educated liberal elitists" shouldn't be trusted because they aren't "real, God-fearing Americans". Uhh... yeah. If you ask me, I'd rather do what someone who has spent decades studying economics wants to do rather than what Sarah Palin's gut tells her to do. Just sayin'.

So, please, don't place the whole blame on the Obama Administration. Do you realize how much crap they have on their plates right now? Two wars, an economic crisis, a failing health care system, not to mention cleaning up the messes caused by the Bush Administration's torture and illegal detention of "terrorists"... He's already done a lot on the foreign policy front, so at least the world doesn't hate us as much anymore and we can start working with our allies to fix some of these messes.

Besides, who died and said President Obama was the Supreme Ruler and King? Remember your elementary school lessons on American government, when they talked about there being three branches of government? Sure, the president has a lot of power, but he can't force congress to do what it doesn't want to do. He needs the support of the House and the Senate to pass his initiatives. In order to get things done and to show that he is trying to be bipartisan, he has to reach out to Republicans. He has to compromise with them (a task easier said than done), otherwise the entire process will stall.

So, please, cut the man a break. He's Trying, which is more than most others are doing right now. I certainly don't agree with everything President Obama says and does, but I think people need to realize that real change takes a lot more than six months time to happen.