Away free shit. Trump did that plenty, just to a somewhat different target audience, like farmers being pinched by trade wars. He spent like a drunken sailor, and he did it at the tail end of a very long economic expansion.

Much of Obama’s occurred in the direct aftermath of the Great Recession. I actually don’t think it was done very well and we avoided the worst more because of end of Bush term measures and Fed action. And importantly, we stayed away from protectionism at that time. IMO, Trumpism would have been a disaster in 2009 and ‘10.

Again, don’t mean this personally, but I think partisans object to spending by the other guys, but everyone uses “free shit” to an extent to troll for votes. Sure, Biden’s playing politics, but they want to run in the future on solving the pandemic. Biden is also trying hard to jump start vaccinations. And they want to be seen as effective, so they will prefer to overshoot rather than undershoot on aid.

I guess my only objection to your post is the suggestion that there is something partisan about this. Party out of power always suddenly finds religion on deficits and spending.
[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 01/15/2021 09:06AM]