Thus spake Hope ‘n Change in his speech yesterday at Brookings on jobs and the economy. The first “stimulus” isn’t even spent and he’s proposing another – using money we’ll doubtless have to print. From the AP, via Breitbart:
President Barack Obama outlined new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals Tuesday, saying the nation must continue to “spend our way out of this recession” until more Americans are back at work.
Without giving a price tag, Obama proposed a package of new spending for highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, deeper tax breaks for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient.
“We avoided the depression many feared,” Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But, he added, “Our work is far from done.”
For the third time in a week, Obama sought to focus on job creation, noting that the unemployment rate was still at 10 percent in November, though down slightly from its 10.2 percent peak. He said “a staggering” 7 million Americans have lost jobs since the recession began two years ago.
While his proposal did not include the kind of direct federal public works jobs that were created in the 1930s, he said government could set the stage for more job creation by private businesses.
A few objections:
First, we haven’t “avoided the depression many feared”. Like mad Harry, Hope ‘n Change doesn’t know much about history. In Great Depression terms, it took the US economy from October 1929 to March 1933 to tank – and this was after Herbert Hoover intervened repeatedly in the economy. In fact, there was little to distinguish Hoover’s program from Roosevelt’s New Deal. None of it worked.
Second, bridge and highway construction? I thought that was what the Porkulus bill was supposed to accomplish.
Third, he’s going to create more jobs by using the federal government to “set the state for more job creation by the private businesses”. This sounds to me like a prelude to more pressure on the private sector, for which he has no respect.
Fourth, Hope ‘n Change wants to use TARP money as his personal slush fund, managed by the inept and compliant Tim Geithner. What could go wrong with that?
As I – and many others – have argued, the best thing that could be done is to do nothing. But that won’t do for people who view this as the main chance to take over the economy.
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