as everything is relative and relative to his predecessors he's doing OK. one can argue that spending bills come out of the house so any decrease in spending is from them but then the house gets the blame too. for the car bailouts -they made money. the other stuff was an emergency and pork had to be spread around to the congressional districts of both Ds and Rs to get a bill out quickly during a crisis. i also really like that any company taking money had their ceo's salary constrained until it was paid back. i'd like to see the same rule universal. my main complaint with obama in that mess is that no one went to jail!

as for SS, the main problem [imo] is that SS taxes went into general revenue. if taxes were calibrated to rise and fall to just cover SS spending that would eliminate much of the problem by itself. i dont see major increases in retirement age as necessary but some may be. if it is necessary and someone is not able to work for a few more years they can try another job [likely at a lower wage-sorry but wages generally reflect productivity] or go on disability. the latter is not optimal of course.

bill