Ken's Comments

The common result of a government spending more money than it earns is devaluation of its currency. The US government's deficit increased during the Bush Administration. The Democrats and the Obama Admiminstration lifted that deficit to an enormous new level. A common effect of currency devaluation is inflation. In a bad economy, that is going to be a real problem - just ask people who lived through the Jimmy Carter Administration. First of all, let's spread this blame in a non-partisan fashion. Republicans during the Bush Adminstration years controlled Congress and the White House and they showed no fiscal discipline. The Bush Administration capped this by spending a ton of money in 2008 to try to prevent or curtail the recession - first having a stimulus tax cut at the beginning of the year and then approving the TARP bailout funds - easily a trillion dollars spent last year to prevent the recession. Now, we have the Obama Administration spending another trillion dollars for

Interesting to see how President Obama is following in President Bush's footsteps on a number of important policies. For example President Obama is continuing: To bail out AIG The TARP program for Banks To bail out of GM and Chrysler The withdrawal from Iraq Not releasing photos of prisoner abuse Spending significantly more federal dollars than the amount of taxes collected There are others, but time does not permit me to research them all. It shows that President Bush's policies were not so horrible as was suggested by Democratic candidates on the campaign trail. At the same time, one must admit there are some things President Obama has done differently - environmental issues and cracking down on credit card companies would be two areas of difference that are notable and laudable. There are areas, such as rgulatory reform of mortgage lending or types of stock trading, where President Bush did not have a chance to offer solutions

Denials by President Obama to the contrary, I have some real questions about this Administration's micromanagement of the businesses to whom they are lending taxpayer dollars. Some things they are doing make sense and are consistent with the way business normally operates. But there are a number of things this Administration is doing which exceed the boundaries of normal operations and some are both scary and can create further economic calamity. Unfortunately, no one in the "main stream media" (e.g. not labeled conservatives) are challenging the President on this. Let's start by giving credit, where credit is due - President Bush started us down this path with the bailout of AIG, the $700 million for banks under TARP, and the decision to lend money to the auto makers. President Obama is carrying on programs that President Bush started. Second, if the government is going to provide money to companies then the Government, like any lender, has the right to try to p