Economic+Woe!


 * Recession under Bush:** During the final months of 2001, the first recession of this century came to an end. This was the first recession under President George W. Bush, however another came in a mere 6 years in 2007, which plunged America into another economic downfall that was almost as bad as the Great Depression. Even though America had the world’s largest economy during 2007, producing about $15 trillion of goods, failures of the housing and credit markets escalated the unemployment rate and drop in stock market in a rapid pace. The larger portions of government spending were on social security, health care, and national defense, all[[image:http://www.worldculturepictorial.com/images/content/US_makes_it_official_in_recession.jpg width="255" height="207" align="right"]] within hundred of billions of dollars. To handle this problem, Bush signed a $168 billion stimulus package which gave rebates back to tax payers, hoping to increase the consumption rate, but ultimately this failed. With this, prices of natural resources and the need for agricultural materials soared tremendously. Also, the government had to support mortgage companies such as Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac and American International Group, the grand insurance company, providing billions of dollars to help them from verge of collapsing. Other businesses on wall streets began to fail steadily. With the concluding months of Bush’s second and final term, Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary proposed the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a $700 billion plan to renovate the failing economy and was initiated, hoping to reverse the decline.


 * New Direction with Obama:** As President Obama became president, the economy was still on its continuous declining course to economic failure. Since his inauguration, he is faced with the pressure of America’s society for about 15% of the population is unemployed and America is trillions of dollars in debt. This high of a percentage of unemployment causes intense sorrow to those who cannot support their families. Unfortunate families cried for help, for a miracle to occur, and this has traveled to Obama. To begin his term, Obama issued a $787 billion stimulate plan to help the economy, mostly through tax cuts. He also proposed that people who make more than $250,000 a year should have their taxes raised. He furthered his plan to broaden health care and preserve the consumption of energy.