Obama Becomes Lame Duck President in Three Weeks
It was abundantly clear that Obama was not gonna get much if any "honeymoon" period given the calamitous conditions he has just inherited, but a couple significant tactical blunders have produced a trainwreck economic stimulus package that has for all intents and purposes ended Barack Obama's Presidency less than a month after taking his oath.
You can now count me out for supporting this stimulus package. The only part of the package that would have produced immediate stimulus (or at least stopped some of the bleeding) was the money given to the states....and the "moderates" have now cut that in half. Are these beacons of "moderation" retarded? At this point, there's nothing in the stimulus package that I can see as being particularly useful in keeping the economy from going off the rails in 2009. If it's all backloaded spending projects that take effect in the summer of 2011, and of course hundreds of billions more in mindless tax cuts, then what good is it?
Obama made two big mistakes here. First, he trusted Congress to churn out this bill without Rahm-bo micromanaging its crafting and working his tyrant magic to make sure it's free of the very kind of frivolous spending that gives its critics perfect ammunition to cherry pick. Now Obama has a bill full of dopey earmarks that Sean Hannity gets to demagogue every night that assures falling public support. Second, he convinced himself bipartisanship was not only desired, but a MUST. The Republicans have absolutely nothing to gain by supporting this bill. Even on the off-chance it works (which now seems even more unlikely), the solution will create a new crisis, most likely in the form of manic inflation 2-3 years down the road.
Given that Obama has quite a few smart and experienced people in his inner circle, I'm surprised he got rolled so easily on this. The inevitable consequence is that a stimulus bill irrationally catering to every Republican whim (over $300 billion MORE in tax cuts) will nonetheless get next to no Republican votes as the GOP is fully invested in the stimulus passing and then ultimately failing. Meanwhile, in order to avoid embarrassing the new President, Democrats will be forced to vote for this turkey knowing full well that it will fail.
Let the good times roll.
You can now count me out for supporting this stimulus package. The only part of the package that would have produced immediate stimulus (or at least stopped some of the bleeding) was the money given to the states....and the "moderates" have now cut that in half. Are these beacons of "moderation" retarded? At this point, there's nothing in the stimulus package that I can see as being particularly useful in keeping the economy from going off the rails in 2009. If it's all backloaded spending projects that take effect in the summer of 2011, and of course hundreds of billions more in mindless tax cuts, then what good is it?
Obama made two big mistakes here. First, he trusted Congress to churn out this bill without Rahm-bo micromanaging its crafting and working his tyrant magic to make sure it's free of the very kind of frivolous spending that gives its critics perfect ammunition to cherry pick. Now Obama has a bill full of dopey earmarks that Sean Hannity gets to demagogue every night that assures falling public support. Second, he convinced himself bipartisanship was not only desired, but a MUST. The Republicans have absolutely nothing to gain by supporting this bill. Even on the off-chance it works (which now seems even more unlikely), the solution will create a new crisis, most likely in the form of manic inflation 2-3 years down the road.
Given that Obama has quite a few smart and experienced people in his inner circle, I'm surprised he got rolled so easily on this. The inevitable consequence is that a stimulus bill irrationally catering to every Republican whim (over $300 billion MORE in tax cuts) will nonetheless get next to no Republican votes as the GOP is fully invested in the stimulus passing and then ultimately failing. Meanwhile, in order to avoid embarrassing the new President, Democrats will be forced to vote for this turkey knowing full well that it will fail.
Let the good times roll.
posted by Mark at 8:28 PM
2 Comments:
Any spending of money will stimulate the economy. He was damn lucky that he got $800 billion. In 1993, the Republicans wouldnt even let Clinton have $18 billion for a stimulus. We are in a situation now where money has to be spent by the government in order to stimulate demand. This is not the time to be fiscally responsible. Clinton learned this in 1993 when he raised taxes and cut spending, which stalled the recovery and cost Democrats big in 1994. Any funding that was taken out of this bill can be placed into the 2010 budget which cannot be filibustered. We need to spend as much as possible to get the economy going again in the short term.
For the most part I agree with you. Spending money does stimulate the economy....if it takes place in 2009 and not 2011. I'm not sure on the specifics of last night's Senate-House deal but if it closely resembled the Senate "compromise" from last Friday, even less money of this stimulus was poised to be spent in 2009 in places where the money would be most useful (aid to cash-starved states). The cut to relief for states was an absolutely brainless change in the bill. It was its most effective tenet yet it was cut by more than 50%. Unless the states get a large enough chunk of money to avoid draconian budget cuts and/or tax increases, this stimulus will be failed legislation.
As far as I'm concerned, going really big or doing nothing at all are both better options that doing "a lot" but mostly with items that raise long-term spending and don't even start pumping money into the economy for more than a year. I'm not sure if the bill we ended up with is more like the latter or not, but the stimulus package the Senate "moderates" churned out last week surely was.
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