sadly, Republicans do not offer much for
alternatives
The US has no choice. To do the right thing is to let the banks fail and real estate foreclose, so people who have money on the sideline rush in and buy these assets. This means higher unemployment and more suffering, but it allows us to hit the bottom quickly thus starting the recovery process. The political price is the party in power will lose the next election because the opposition will take advantage of the suffering. No political party or POTUS will do this, so there is only one option left, spend money to stabilize the system, and inflate our debt away. The Fed in the next ten plus years will balance between deflation and inflation and they hope something unforseen does not happen to cause our financial system to collapse and meltdown.