The next greatest failure of the Obama Administration was the failure to rein in government spending and to winnow down America’s onerous debt. When he inherited the White House from George W. Bush, Obama did have a gigantic mess to clean.
Obama’s solution was not to buckle down and deal with the crises he was dealt. Instead, his solution was to ignore the tragic reality he and the country faced and to pretend as if the debt was meaningless—by tacking on loads more debt, to spend money on Democratic Party wish lists.
And while Obama could make the claim that he was simply continuing those responses to deal with the ongoing emergencies, there was so much other spending that occurred that did not to happen it begs the question: just what was Obama thinking?
Obama spent more tax dollars than all 43 presidents who came before him. This was born out of the Keynesian belief that one can spend their way out of economic decline. You cannot. All that does is weaken the economy, reduce your currency’s standing in the world, and set yourself up for the mother-of-all bankruptcies.
It’s easier to paint Republicans as a bunch of miserly racists intent on throwing grandma off the cliff and making the rich wealthier. Rather than work to create a “Grand Bargain” that would have made America a stronger, more prosperous, freer nation in the long-run, Obama refused to negotiate; he scuttled his talks with Boehner and doubled-down on the excessive spending.
The major economic crisis that the United States is speeding towards today is the direct result of Obama’s failure—his willing refusal—to address the emergency when it could have been contained and resolved before becoming the crisis we’re heading into today.
