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<blockquote data-quote="zako" data-source="post: 7615535" data-attributes="member: 629735">The crisis hit when the housing bubble burst. The bubble took many years to build. I could see in 2007 the disaster that&#039;s coming.You can do some research on who benefited from Bush tax cuts. If you make &amp;gt;100K your marginal tax rate goes down by a few percentage point. There are also those for whom the tax cut meant a couple of hundred bucks in the their tax return check.If I remember, the stimulus bill was less than 1trillion, out of which a considerable portion was tax cuts. The deficit might have doubled, but most of it is due to weak economy and hence weak tax revenue.I don&#039;t think that constitutes &quot;the proof&quot;. A contrary argument could spin things around and say that without stimulus the macro economy would have been worse right now.And regarding the Iraq war, you have got to be kidding me. There is nothing even to discuss here. There was practically zero evidence of WMDs or Saddam Hussein&#039;s link to Al Queda before we went to war. Most of &#039;evidence&#039;, which was used as one of excuses for war, came from claims of the Iraqi dissidents, many of whom would benefit greatly from a regime change in Iraq. And don&#039;t get me started about the whole Plame Affair. It shows very nicely how the case was being cooked up for the Iraq war. Bush and his people used the 9/11 tragedy in order to drum up support for a war that served their unstated goals, sent thousands of American soldiers to their deaths, and added a nice trillion to the government&#039;s debt. The Iraq war is what made the previous administration truly despicable instead of merely unlikable.I could care less about what&#039;s happening in Iraq right now. That&#039;s their problem now. They&#039;ll deal with it. If Iraq is meant to implode for cultural reasons, it will implode. For how long should have American troops remained there anyways? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? If this is important for the world peace, why aren&#039;t other countries contributing their troops?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="zako, post: 7615535, member: 629735"] The crisis hit when the housing bubble burst. The bubble took many years to build. I could see in 2007 the disaster that's coming. You can do some research on who benefited from Bush tax cuts. If you make >100K your marginal tax rate goes down by a few percentage point. There are also those for whom the tax cut meant a couple of hundred bucks in the their tax return check. If I remember, the stimulus bill was less than 1trillion, out of which a considerable portion was tax cuts. The deficit might have doubled, but most of it is due to weak economy and hence weak tax revenue. I don't think that constitutes "the proof". A contrary argument could spin things around and say that without stimulus the macro economy would have been worse right now. And regarding the Iraq war, you have got to be kidding me. There is nothing even to discuss here. There was practically zero evidence of WMDs or Saddam Hussein's link to Al Queda before we went to war. Most of 'evidence', which was used as one of excuses for war, came from claims of the Iraqi dissidents, many of whom would benefit greatly from a regime change in Iraq. And don't get me started about the whole Plame Affair. It shows very nicely how the case was being cooked up for the Iraq war. Bush and his people used the 9/11 tragedy in order to drum up support for a war that served their unstated goals, sent thousands of American soldiers to their deaths, and added a nice trillion to the government's debt. The Iraq war is what made the previous administration truly despicable instead of merely unlikable. I could care less about what's happening in Iraq right now. That's their problem now. They'll deal with it. If Iraq is meant to implode for cultural reasons, it will implode. For how long should have American troops remained there anyways? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? If this is important for the world peace, why aren't other countries contributing their troops? [/QUOTE]

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