MonteLDS wrote:steelly wrote:Vote for Kerry; this country needs a new direction in both economic and foriegn policy!
i don't think any president has a lot of power over the economy.
Monte, you nailed this one with a big hammer.
The President has VERY LITTLE POWER OVER THE ECONOMY. Problem is, everyone thinks he does. In a dictatorship, a leader might have power over their own country's local economy to some extent (note how it's beginning to get away from China in current events, though it used to be fully under government control) but the truth is, the economy is based on far too many complex variables to lay it at the foot of the president. A President may be able to weaken it a bit or strengthen it a bit, but he's one cog in a large set of gears that include consumer confidence, media spin, other countries, commodities markets, and I could go on and on. People gave Clinton/Gore far too much good credit over a (largely artificial as it was a dot com bubble) economy, and they're giving Bush a bad rap over a poor economy he only has so much control over. I do agree with one thing that Kerry has said that companies who ship American jobs overseas should not expect huge tax credits from us. Even so, if the benefits outweigh the lost tax credits, the jobs will still leave. That's what happens in a global economy, and we're foolish if we believe the economy is "just a US issue"; rather it's a global one.