I probably should just plead self-delusion and quit, but here goes:
It was fiscal considerations.
I was hoping he'd get us quickly out of the ME and stem the financial costs.
I was hoping he would allow all the Bush tax cuts to sunset, while maybe keeping the beefed up child exemption Bush had given, thus raising revenues.
As for healthcare, in theory, a single-payer healthcare system could be made to work. There's no good reason why not, imo. So I was OK with an administration that would explore the feasibility of this. I never dreamed he and his administration would come up with another expensive entitlement program like the ACA plus add to the expensively subsidized Bush prescription drug plan.
So once he upped the ante in Afghanistan and stuck the country with ACA, I was gone.
Well, actually, the stimulus pretty much sent me packing. Things were moving so fast then with the possible collapse of the banking system that it was hard to figure out what was TARP, what was stimulus, who was getting what, and so on. But it all smelled...even at the time. I trade the markets.....both as a futures trader and as a stock investor. So I accepted the need for quick and bold infusions of capital to keep the system going. But pretty quickly it was clear to me that Wall Street had rolled this administration, and it didn't sit well.....and still doesn't.
So many bad decisions, at least to me, and one after the other, each one compounding the ill effects of the previous. Just amazing. That many bad decisions in a row couldn't be scripted..ha.
In short, for some deluded reason I thought Obama would get in office, see the honest numbers and realize the dire state of the country's fiscal trajectory and then make wise decisions accordingly. But he and congressional dems proved utterly clueless re fiscal matters. My guess now is the country will be forced to painfully restructure itself. It can't grow itself out. Demographics will overwhelm whatever moderate rate of growth is realized. So I'd rather now put my money on the Republican Party to thread us through that process. |
