Economic Crisis: President’s Fault or Not?

Written By: JFK Beacon Center

There are over three hundred million people living in the United States, only 55.3% of registered voters have voted during the presidential elections for the past three decades, according to Dr. Michael P. McDonald of George Mason University. Many Americans today feel the president is responsible for all economic decisions or at least in control of them. Is the president really responsible? The economic debt today is 9.3 trillion dollars. To make matters worse, our debt has been purchased by China and Japan. Doesn’t our government have problems with these countries? Could the president of the United States be responsible for the economic crisis? Can any blame be put on us as Americans?
“The president is just a proof reader”, says Thomas Louisien. Louis Habicher feels the president has the power to veto any bills being created by Congress that would make the economic crisis worse. What is the truth about the president’s real power to create a crisis or stop one? “The president obviously does not control everything that happens on their watch. But it is fair to judge how they play the economic hands they were dealt”, states Robert D. Atkinson of the progressive Policy Institute.
The cards the president can play could be to create jobs that would help stimulate the economic growth. These jobs and tax cuts for poorer families would relieve financial pressure. The president can create a global response to the economic crisis, possibly creating a summit dealing directly with foreign governments. He can police the Federal Reserve Board. He can stop financial deregulation that has been happening since the 1970’s. Finally, he can help us learn to control our personal debt by slowly changing our attitude about spending. Derek Johnson feels the president should ask for the younger generations to start to learn better ways to manage debt so the American debt to China and Japan will be less.