it's mute if no one will listen and it's moot if no one cares that there is a way to save this country and we don't have time to waste. "The $787 billion package somehow ended up closer to $864 billion." already and will no doubt swell even more. There is no question that this kind of spending works, sure it does some good. But can it do what is needed to turn things around?
I think not and I am not mean spirited or partisan in that view. Not in search of a pointless debate. And not alone...
"Stimulus package has preserved public jobs, still a disappointment for private sector growth.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Obama initiative falls short
Feeling stimulated? No? President Obama says to hang in there -- a good part of the $787 billion recovery act has yet to be spent, and another stimulus, in the form of a $15 billion jobs bill, is in the works.
According to the polls, most of us have doubts about the viability of the one-year-old stimulus package. With good reason.
Obama and his supporters, including Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, trotted out statistics this week to back up the limited success of the spending effort. According to the president, 2 million jobs were saved, yet no one is fooled by the numbers. Most of the jobs preserved were in the public sector -- unionized government jobs -- and upcoming state budgets in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are showing how a mere deferral of pain cannot substitute for real economic growth.
The same fate awaits local school districts, many of which have a choice between big tax increases or deep-reaching layoffs.
True, there's a valid argument that government spending can keep money circulating and people working while the engine recharges -- but just where is that opening, if the cost of supporting government at all levels keeps on growing?
The real disappointment is the stubborn unemployment figure, which dipped below 10 percent in recent months but didn't get close to the president's 8 percent target. (Actual unemployment is more than twice the government estimate, considering the people who have given up looking.)
Other disappointments? The number of earmarks and pork that ended up in the stimulus package. The feds' inability to live up to a "transparent" tracking of the jobs created. And the federal deficit swelled. The $787 billion package somehow ended up closer to $864 billion. Total federal debt is now about $12 trillion. And the private sector job outlook is still iffy.
It's important to remember that doing nothing was a bleak option, too. The good news is the unspent portion of the stimulus -- about two-thirds of the total -- will go toward infrastructure projects, which should boost private-sector hiring. Some will go toward tax cuts.
Today Obama is launching an 18-member deficit-taming commission, with a goal of getting the federal budget's red ink under control by 2015.
Another blue-ribbon panel. In other words, some time to figure out what we're trying to figure out.
That's essentially what massive deficit spending is: Buying time."
And we don't have time!
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