Yep, the $600 per taxpayer some folks got did indeed start a while back but lumping that in a discussion of a multi trillion$$ banking/lending bailout deal passed in congress with enough pork projects stuffed into the legislation to fund several countries economies for quite a while is not very realistic.

Read a bit more mint, the bulk of the current "stimulus/bailout" package was tabled until after the election, when it was then rushed through congress and passed even though public opinion and outcries from many areas and experts on economic policies from various areas were screaming in unison "Don't Do It, HISTORY HAS PROVEN THIS DOESN'T WORK!". Sampling of public opinion polls on this topic was running at around 60% against it and our new congress just basically said FUCK YOU JOHN Q and passed it anyway.

Pulse, while there's truth to your statement about the economic surplus that GWB inherited when he took office, what seemingly has been overlooked by pundits who claim his administration was responsible for the downward spiral is that 9-11-01 was the actual beginning of it all.

The cost to the US for the resulting fallout from the attacks : implementation of new security measures and devices regarding the increased security, reworking policies regarding travel and security, etc were tremendous to both our government and the industries effected by the changes and mandates. The impact from these changes has been devastating to many companies in that sector leading to many of them filing bankruptcy. This again impacts the economy as a whole as suppliers to these industries watched with horror as their customer base dwindled, employees of the now defunct companies began to scramble for jobs elsewhere, often at decreased pay and benefits comparatively, further decimating the tax base, etc. The trickle down effect from all this is still impacting our economy years later.

I'm not here to idolize GWB and that's for sure as his administration was responsible for a huge errosion of our personal freedoms and rights that are totally reprehensible (which seem to be continued from Obamas administration too however) and I think we were totally misled by poor intel in many of the military campaigns undertaken during GWBs time in office which led to HUGE spending in the military sectors, but that's a whole other facet to it all. Just like in any industry the Big Boss, in this case GWB has to shoulder the blame for the actions of their subordinates, meaning the military actions started from poor intell still fall on his shoulders but ..... in the same hand the huge deficit spending programs that have been implemented since Obama took office have to be accredited to HIS administration too, fair's fair, so ......