Stimulus II?
Posted on July 8, 2009
Stimulus II?
The sequel is rarely better than the first movie. If the first movie is bad, the second movie will inevitably be worse. Think “Porkies 2”.
The same holds true for stimulus packages. The first one has been a dud at the political and economic box office. How can the American people believe that the sequel will be any better.
The Court Jester of the Obama Court, Vice President Joe Biden, put it well over the weekend when he said that his team “misread” the economy. No kidding! What they really misread was the best prescription to spur private sector growth. Growing the government with pork projects is not the way to grow jobs in the private economy.
But that hasn’t stopped the Obama Administration from hinting that they may want to do a sequel of its first stimulus package.
As the Washington Post put it this morning, “Five months after Congress approved a massive package of spending and tax cuts aimed at reviving an ailing economy, the jobless rate is still climbing and the White House is scrambling to reassure an anxious public that President Obama's prescription for economic recovery is on the right track…Senior Democrats on Capitol Hill were nervously contemplating whether additional government stimulus spending may be needed to pull the nation out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Senior administration officials acknowledged that the effects of the stimulus package have been overshadowed by an unexpectedly sharp drop-off in employment since the measure passed in February.”
Unemployment is expected to keep climbing, not only because of weakening economy, but also because of a weakened job creation atmosphere, caused by the policies of the Obama Administration. The President has promised higher taxes on business, more regulations, more mandates (like on climate change, health care, etc), more friendly labor rules, and a generally hostile view of the business community.
The President’s team is now in place. He now has 60 votes in the Senate and a dominating majority in the House. He has the bully pulpit and a fawning media at his beck and call.
He can try to blame the Bush Administration all he wants, but Bush had nothing to do with Stimulus I. Bush didn’t “misread” the economy, the Democrats did, at least according to Joe Biden. Bush didn’t promise higher taxes, higher energy prices, more regulations, bigger government.
The Democrats own this economy now. And should they try to pass a sequel to Stimulus I, they will own the debt too.