Too Much Stimulus?
The orchestra is announcing a new tune and I don’t think we are going to like it. Vice President Biden began by saying that the Obama Administration had underestimated the severity of the recession when it agreed to the Stimulus Package earlier this year. President Obama modified this a bit by saying that time has provided more information and the severity is now better understood. Who’s kidding who?
The Stimulus package (all $ 760 billion of it) ended up containing a wide range of spending, and depending upon your views, it was either wasteful or much needed, but in any case, it was way off the mark if the objective was jobs creation. The Obama Administration knew what they were doing and chose to use much of the money for what they viewed were worthy programs that might not otherwise get enacted once everyone knew how large the deficit was going to be. Now the tune is hinting at the need for Stimulus II.
Jobs and economic growth in a developed country like America is mostly about confidence. It gets off the track from over heating (too low interest for too long) and poor investments (like unnecessary wars and out of control banking practices). A confident population consumes and invests in big ticket items with the idea that the future will be better. No amount of stimulus can fix the housing market short term. No amount of stimulus can return all the jobs that have willingly been shipped to China quickly. No amount of stimulus can create more math and science college graduates who in turn can help produce innovation and real value creation immediately. All of this can be fixed in time and with prudent investments and hard work.
Rather than Stimulus II, President Obama should take the time to explain to the American people what it takes to return to the good life they have enjoyed in the past. America needs a manufacturing engine that pays people what they think they need, while producing goods and service that others can afford to buy. President Obama has pointed out before that education is a key component and he needs to emphasize that education does not mean four years of college (read partying) but really means learning and gaining practical experience. Too many young Americans are graduating from college with huge debts and an inadequate education. Too many young Americans are not even graduating from high school and of those who do, in many large cities, 15-20% of those are illiterate. We are dumbing our way to second class nation status.
So Stimulus II had better be a wake up call. America needs its President to tell it like it is and then tell Americans to fix it themselves.
This entry was posted on July 9, 2009 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Politics, Republican Party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: balanced budget, economic stimulus, economy, stimulus II
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