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Obama's Forgotten Tax Cut

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XhO0eYIIKo8/S75gokDAriI/AAAAAAAAAes/EQ54AHa8yX4/s1600/teapartysign1sm1.jpg Sometimes a plan works too well.

President Barack Obama inherited a major Recession.  People have forgotten that some economists were fearful America could be headed to a Recession that could come close to or even equal the Great Depression. That didn't happen.

In large part, that's because the Obama Administrator quickly and quietly implemented some radical changes to boost the economy.

One of the radical things the administration did was give 95% of working American families a tax cut.  But they did it subtly.  The idea was that with subtlety Americans would slowly start spending more which would boost the economy.

Even the Wall Street Journal, which had been highly critical, finally said the economic programs in total worked.

But Americans have a short attention span, and also expect instant results.  More and more voters are forgetting that Obama inherited the recession.  And many don't know that the recession officially ended very quickly, in June 2009, a few months after Obama took office.

But in the same way the Great Depression ended in America long before the average worker saw significant results, many people today don't see it.  The end of a recession means things are starting to get better, not that they're completely fixed.  Healing takes time.

I was in an automobile collision a couple months back, and had surgery shortly after to fix my broken finger.  My finger now looks straight instead of twisted.  X-rays show the bone is healing quite well, and the muscles of my finger are much more flexible and stronger than they were.

But it's actually harder to heal a finger than it is an arm or a leg, and I'm still not fully recovered.  It could take months or even over a year before my finger gets back to where it was.  The same thing happens with the economy; after corrective surgery, it takes time to heal too.

And people forget.  In a poll, only 10% of people realized that their taxes went down since Obama became president.  Many think they went up.

The evidence is that the administration’s subtlety helped stop and even reverse what could have been a much worse recession.  But unfortunately, being subtle might help the economy, but it doesn't get noticed when it comes to elections.

Sources

"From Obama, the Tax Cut Nobody Heard Of" (New York Times article by Michael Cooper, from October 18, 2010) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/politics/19taxes.html?_r=1&no_interstitial

"Obama's 95% Illusion" (Wall Street Journal article critical of the tax cut, from October 13, 2008) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html Recession over in June 2009 (Wall Street Journal reporting the end of the Recession, from September 20, 2010) http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/20/nber-recession-ended-in-june-2009/

Image is from http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XhO0eYIIKo8/S75gokDAriI/AAAAAAAAAes/EQ54AHa8yX4/s1600/teapartysign1 No threat to its copyright is intended.

Opinions of individual members of The Loveshade Family do not necessarily reflect those of the entire family.

Posted by Alden Loveshade on October 19, 2010 11:58 PM |


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Comments

It's sad but true. People forget. If we truly worked together to help each other, we couldn't have all this conflict.

And I'm glad Alden's finger is getting better. I'm glad we could help!

Posted by: TawTew the Naturally Perfumed | October 20, 2010 11:38 PM

Naw let the Republicans get in and create the second great depression. We need more laws against masturbation; More laws repressing people of colour and gays. We need to impeach Obama and Biden for nothing. We need to start wars with Iran; Pakistan; and North Korea. We must restart the Holy Crusades. God help us.

Posted by: Vernon K Avaritt | October 21, 2010 01:28 PM

This is racist nonsense. The tea baggers are a bunch if rich white people who are afraid of losing their money. So they support a president who wasted a trillion dollars on unwinnable wars, and don't want a few billion to keep people from dying.

Posted by: Will | October 22, 2010 03:26 AM

Why are very few people really rich and a lot of people poor? I heard that 5% of the people have 95% of the money and 95% of the people have to share 5%. Does it really hurt the rich that much to give people who aren't rich a little tax cut?

Posted by: Marie Gilbert | October 23, 2010 05:48 PM

People don't appreciate things that's why they forget.

Posted by: Corporal Will | October 24, 2010 03:39 PM

I am so glad Alden can post by himself after his accident.

Really that picture shows you what it's about. It compares President Obama to a monkey. That's just racist.

You can get lots of votes by bragging about things you didn't do but someone else did. And you can lose lots of votes because of something you didn't do too. None of that's fair.

Posted by: Lorien Loveshade | October 26, 2010 04:14 PM

I remember what Rodney King asked. Why can't we get along?

Posted by: TawTew the Naturally Perfumed | October 27, 2010 04:08 PM

I thought you people were supposed to be open minded. You sound like a bunch of liberal Democrats to me.

Posted by: Tom T. Trucker | October 28, 2010 01:59 AM

Politicians will promise anything, but seldom deliver what they promise. Everyone should pray that God's people win.

Posted by: Christian Andy | November 2, 2010 05:07 AM

Andy, what about Goddesses people?

Posted by: Dharma | November 3, 2010 02:28 AM

People blame the current leader for not fixing the mistakes of the past. Not fair but that's people.

Posted by: Eagle Observed | November 6, 2010 08:47 AM

Mr. President you just lost your base, good luck getting them back!

Posted by: Kum Beeson | December 7, 2010 04:26 PM

What did you say? I forgot.

Posted by: Rev. Bootie | December 30, 2010 10:21 PM