Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Obama - the squandered stimulus


Washington Post - Robert J. Samuelson

It's not surprising that the much-ballyhooed "economic stimulus" hasn't done much stimulating. President Obama and his aides argue that it's too early to expect startling results. They have a point. A $14 trillion economy won't revive in a nanosecond. But the defects of the $787 billion package go deeper and won't be cured by time. The program crafted by Obama and the Democratic Congress wasn't engineered to maximize its economic impact. It was mostly a political exercise, designed to claim credit for any recovery, shower benefits on favored constituencies and signal support for fashionable causes. As a result, much of the stimulus's potential benefit has been squandered. Spending increases and tax cuts are sprinkled in too many places and, all too often, are too delayed to do much good now. Nor do they concentrate on reviving the economy's most depressed sectors: state and local governments; the housing and auto industries. None of this means the stimulus won't help or precludes a recovery, but the help will be weaker than necessary [...] Here, as elsewhere, there's a gap between Obama's high-minded rhetoric and his performance. In February, Obama denounced "politics as usual" in constructing the stimulus. But that's what we got, and Obama likes the result. Interviewed recently by ABC's Jake Tapper, he was asked whether he would change anything. Obama seemed to invoke a doctrine of presidential infallibility. "There's nothing that we would have done differently," he said.

2 comments :

  1. Recipients and PublicityJuly 22, 2009 at 8:11 AM

    Obamania will only go from bad to worse, very little is encouraging.

    Just read: Obama Just Might Be a Socialist (newsmax.com, July 20, 2009): "...Have you read the headlines this past week? Obama has proposed trillions of dollars in new taxes, and trillions of dollars of irresponsible, unsustainable new spending. He’s offered no way to pay for it all, except to wipe out small businessmen and women, and wipe out the upper middle class, and enslave our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt and heavy taxes for a lifetime. It is, plainly and simply, the very definition of socialism. Let's say it out loud — Obama is a socialist..."

    FOX: Even Soaking the Rich Won’t Cover the Cost of Obama’s Socialist Healthcare Scheme (newsrealblog.com, July 21 2009): "...As he promised he would, President Obama “really is remaking America — he’s just making it a whole lot crappier — kind of a hybrid between France and Venezuela,” Glenn Beck said on his Monday program...This class warfare strategy is calculated to appeal to popular resentment. “It’s not about actual common sense or fixing anything; it’s about them convincing you to give the shaft to someone else for the power and control of socialism,” Beck said. But even soaking the rich won’t cover the full cost of the plan, he said. Levies on the wealthy will cover just over one-third of the estimated $1.5 trillion the new system would cost America. President Obama says the remaining $1 trillion will come from savings. This frightens governors from both parties who fear this will force states “to pick up the tab for any increase in Medicaid eligibility levels, benefits or payments to doctors,” said Beck..."

    Shocker: Public Plan for the Masses Not Good Enough for Senators & Their Kids (wordpress.com, July 18, 2009): "...Democratic Senators voted against a proposed Amendment that would require them and their families to join the public plan which Obama wants to impose on the rest of us. Message to our Senators: If it’s not good enough for YOU, don’t ask us to use it..."

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  2. Recipients and PublicityJuly 22, 2009 at 12:31 PM

    Jackie Mason calls it like it is:

    Obama: The decisive destroyer (4 minute video) (indecisive on Iran but "decisive" with the US economy)

    ReplyDelete

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