This is not a political website but if some are making it one - look at the economy, employment, years of economic and job growth, wall street, banking system, your 401K's and how many American lives that died at war during the last 24 years and tell me which twelve years were best. I'm using facts so don't counter with any idealism or deficit numbers. The first thing they teach you in economics after supply and demand is when a country is in a recession (especially like the largest ever) and if companies are not buying capital and consumers are not spending the only way out is government spending. And thats not tarp money but spending on things that create jobs like all the road work and construction you've seen so much of.