2 ms·

I think a lot of Obama's difficulties stem from having to steer a massive federal bureaucracy. To my eye, he's only making the weight of bureaucracy worse.

• nostrademons 16y ago
  I think every president makes the weight of bureaucracy worse. It seems to be a law of nature that bureaucracy only grows, never shrinks, until it consumes the society that supports it. Then we get another Dark Ages. I also think that in general, a president's power tends to be overstated. People give Clinton a lot of credit for the 90s boom, but I think he was largely riding a technological wave that he had nothing to do with. Dubya did screw things up, but many of the things he screwed up were already set in motion before he took office. Obama fixed a few things, but he's also made things worse in ways that we probably won't see the ramifications of until several years down the line. I shudder to think of the next financial bubble, now that we've set the precedent that wanton recklessness will get you bailed out by the federal government.