The reality is that if you believe in Keynesian economics, as President Obama at least at one point clearly did, then you must conclude that Obama made several costly mistakes that significantly hurt the economy. Below are just five of the bigger ones.

Currently several Republican governors are threatening not to take part in the Medicaid expansion, which has become an optional part of the Affordable Care Act. Even if you share the optimism of people like Peter Orzag, who claims all states will eventual adopt the expansion because federal funding will end up being too good of a deal to refuse, that will not change the fact that, long term, having states manage and fund a large part of Medicaid will become a larger and larger problem.

With the Supreme Court ruling that states have the option to opt-out of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and several Republican governor already saying they will opt-out, now is a good time to push for fully federalizing the program. Common sense economics argues for federal funding, because it can deal with the need for more funding during economic down turns.

As more signs indicate the economy has stalled and unemployment is likely to remain way too high for years to come, the American people are moving towards prioritizing spending to create jobs over deficit reduction.

After months of actively signaling weakness on extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, President Obama is about to reach a “compromise.” According to reports, it sounds like the compromise with be a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts for all, a year-long extension of unemployment insurance, and an extension of some of [...]