Obama and the unemplyment rate?

Question

Waaaayyyyy back in January, Obama promised that the passage of his economic stimulus package would drive unemployment down to levels we enjoyed in the late 80's and early 90's.

300 Trillion dollars later the unemployment rate has gone from 7.9% to 10.3%

Can we start blaming Obama for this or is this still George W. Bush's fault.

Can we point out that John Lott predicted this in February, 2009.

Answer 1

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i didn't expect the economy to turn around in a yr. but i also didn't expect this president aid in further destroying it with his ludicrous policies. never in the history of the world has any economy been turned around by throwing money at it. i'm not an economist but common sense tells me you don't create jobs by raising taxes or costs on business with a cap and trade bill or a health care bill which creates taxes, or fines. the uncertainty of what congress is going to do next is contributing to the uneasiness of the business community.
tomhale1, i think you are confusing the bailout pkg. with the stimulus pkg. bush had nothing to do with any of the money in the stimulus pkg. the bailout was 700 and the bush admni. left 1/2 that money for the obama admin. to use as they saw fit.
daniel_d, i'm an educated person and while i agree the economy started collapsing at the end of bush's term, the internet bubble had burst and the economy was in a downturn when he took office as well. i don't recall him blaming clinton on a daily basis. obama ran for the job, he wanted the job, he got the job for better or worse (kind of like marriage). stop the blame game, use some common sense and get things turned around. the buck stops at his desk, whether you like it or not.

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Asker's Comment:

Agreed

Answer 2

lots of blame to go around, I guess we could blame the republicans for not going along with the plan and putting that stimulus money to use if you want to point fingers. I cant imagine where you get the 300 trillion dollar figure, obama is responsible for about the same amount of stimulus money as george w was. Its pretty silly to think that the economy was going to turn around and be back to business as usual within a year.

Answer 3

Neither, we can blame companies for not hiring, the people with jobs for hoarding their cash(although understandable), the corporations for investing overseas, the banks for hanging on to the stimulous money, or giving it up as bonuses. Corporate investment in America is dropping at a rate of 10,000 dollars per minute, while personal savings is rising at a rate of 1,000 per minute.

Answer 4

The president is way too busy apologizing to the leaders of nations that support terrorism to be worried about some people who lost their jobs. I am wondering how long it's going to take him to apologize to the murderer in Fort Hood for the cop that shot him.

Answer 5

you can blame him a little but any educated person has to rationally accept that this economy started failing under Bush/Cheney

Answer 6

They will try to stifle Lott and the others that predicted the failure of the massive pork fest.

Answer 7

it's way past time to blame Bush...it's time for Oblabla to stand up and take some responsibility