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To be fair, Obama took office in the middle of a recession and had to immediately release a massive stimulus package (recovery act).

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I would not say that he had to do that, or that it was a particularly good idea.

OK, it might have been an objectively bad response (economists will probably argue for decades on this, and still not agree), but it's still a pretty good excuse. Just like 9/11 can be used to excuse Bush's military spending (or at least, some of it).

Both are black swan events. The real damage is done by things like tax cuts, structural spending increases, and social security, as they are much more structural.

Oh, certainly. I remain confused as to why we would cut payroll tax by 2% while running deficits of 10% of GDP, or extend any portion of Bush's tax cuts, or refuse to discuss cuts to entitlement programs when our tax revenue is not enough to pay for entitlement programs, payments on the national debt, and the IRS.

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