Don't go back to you? You should really check out places other than the United States. Mind you, I don't think Bush (or any Republican, for that matter) is a fascist, I just find it's unfair that Obama is called a socialist.
Canada has a national Employment Insurance program. We (even me having worked a part time job at McDonald's) have to give about 1-2% of our paycheck to the EI pool. EI funds are generously given to people who are out of work, but there's more to it than that. In Canada, should a mother go pregnant, she obviously has to take a leave to take care of her baby. She can get thirty-five weeks off, and EI will pay her 70% of her current pay/salary, while guaranteeing the job back when she gets back. Not only that, illness and compassionate care are also covered in EI. I didn't even talk about the Canada Pension Plan yet.
You don't get anything back? Yeah, we pay more taxes than the Americans do (our sales tax is 13%). Canada's Economic Action Plan has been a plan to basically improve the infrastructure of places around Canada. Skating rinks, parks, libraries, etc. These guys are all getting funds to improve the buildings and the surroundings we live in. The Canadian government is funding that, not corporate investors. That money is going to the construction workers, to the cities, the infrastructures, etc. Should we get taxed as much as the Americans, will the Harper Government ever be able to fund that? If not at all, at least in a much smaller scale. Watch the Canadian Dollar be worth more than the American dollar in a few months time (NOTE: in 2002, $1 USD = $1.50 CAD). Mind you, we are right now ran by the rightmost party in Canada (disregarding the little fringe parties who don't have a seat in our House of Commons).
A Canadian election takes a fraction of the money to run than an American election. Most of the time, the leader of each party is already chosen, we don't need them to campaign against each other nationwide to lead a party. Stephen Harper basically called an election in June, 2008 and it ended months before the American one even started. Four-year terms don't necessarily exist here. Prime Ministers can hold their positions for many years, well past eight. There aren't those limits, and clearly we get much less ads saying how Stephen Harper sucks, vote Ignatieff than Vote Obama, not McCain.
If you really wanted to boost the economy by spending, why do you have to spend it on the largest corporation in the market? What about the Mom and Pop shop? What about those little guys who might run one or two restaurants max? Don't they exist as well? Canada isn't the only example. I'm sure someone else from outside of North America can tell us how their country runs. Yeah, Canada isn't perfect. We still haven't reached our target of giving 0.7% of our GDP to foreign aid. Yes, you have to spend on the economy, but it has to be sustainable. You can easily name tens of hundreds of celebrities who went bankrupt. Not only them, you can name corporations. Should Obama be spending money on banks? Of course not. Having said that, was he ever a member of Bank of America or Lehman Brothers' Board of Directors? Maybe if they weren't allowed to commit leverage, Lehman Brothers would've still been around and they wouldn't have begged Obama for money.
