The Obama’s plan and FDR’s New Deal approached serious economic downturns in the same way as the result of misconduct and greed inherent in a competitive capitalist system. Their similar remedies–large increases in government spending together with increased control over the economy–produced similar outcomes: an unstable recovery and a failure to reduce unemployment to pre-crisis levels. Since neither spending nor monetary policy has worked, recent government programs, particularly the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, deserve attention. The uncertainties caused by government programs get relatively little coverage because they cannot be quantified, yet they appear to be common factors in the failure of both the Obama and New Deal policies substantially to reduce unemployment.