Stimulus Part 2

The New York Times reported on Labor Day 2010 that the Obama Administration has unveiled a new long term economic stimulus package that would begin with a $50 billion investment in public works projects, like railroads, air port runways and road construction. According to the Times:

“The $787 billion economic recovery act passed by Congress at the beginning of Mr. Obama’s presidency already included considerable spending on roads and other transportation infrastructure. But the White House says Mr. Obama’s new plan is different, because it would focus on a “long-term vision” as well as create jobs in the near term [emphasis added.”

So, at least this new stimulus spending is different…maybe it will lower the unemployment rate this time? And considering there won’t be a census for a little while we can look at real unemployment numbers and avoid the false positives of the previous year (which was chock-full of temporary census workers).

Two more ridiculous points:

Obama has still not figured out how he is going to pay for the stimulus, saying that he is going to work with Congress and find corporate tax breaks to eliminate (not that we need to encourage corporate growth or anything…) so as to avoid adding the deficit.

Ever the consensus builder, Obama has engaged Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ed Rendell and Michael Bloomberg (The consummate Republican, Democrat and Independent of America, respectively) to build consensus. Mr. President, are you serious?

With the Democrats hurting in the polls and talk of a Republican takeover in the midterm elections I wonder how much the inception of this new stimulus package owes to the terrible economic climate (and failure of the first stimulus) and how much it owes to politics.

Leave a comment

Name (required)

E-mail (required)

URI

Your Message

Security Code: