| What the President said, and what EconoPundit thinks... |
| Never thought I'd get a chance to Fisk the President of the United States. Here goes -- Obama's words below are in boldface, my responses are in plain font: By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring. ----- Mister President, we've been hearing from Democrats that this is the "worst economy since the Great Depression" for eight years. Now that we actually are experiencing a recession, it is time to say something new. -------- What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis. Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse. -------- Now that's helpful and interesting. This works like global warming, with some sort of "tipping point" beyond which economic slowdown proceeds ever onward down towards zero itself? No jobs at all? No factories? No workers? Where does it all go? -------- That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come. ------- Sounds like your old campaign speeches. We've heard it all before. Yawn. ------- This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education. And it's a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent. ------- Econ 101 says what's needed is lots of neutral short-term spending. All that "strategy" and "long-term" stuff -- like for example the Community Reinvestment Act -- is what's got ordinary people worried. Don't you understand what's troubling ordinary folks at this point? ------- In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive. ------- Cut my workers' payroll taxes and my employers' contribution and we all have, immediately, a combined 12% raise to spend immediately! What's wrong with that? Doesn't the money get into the economy right away -- "shovel ready", so to speak? -------- I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail. ------- You're starting to sound sorta self-pitying and negative, like Jimmy Carter. Watch it! -------- Every day, our economy gets sicker -- and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now. ----- So give us a payroll tax holiday! Today! A real jump start! ------ Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process. Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient, and to double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy within three years. Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans. And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees; designing a smart electrical grid; and connecting every corner of the country to the information superhighway. These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay. They're patient enough to know that our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months. But they have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide. ------ We have to act immediately because there's an emergency and everything may soon cycle down to zero so we have to do stuff what will change us into the Jetsons' Economy over many years? Of pain and suffering? What? You're kind of off-message here! What are you saying? ------- So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time. ------ Yawn. Aren't you special. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:12 AM |
MajorAdvertiser Superior Table Pad
EconoWriters
Bartlett/NRO
Bartlett/trendmacro
EverythingIKnowisWrong
Sowell
Steve Verdon
Truck&Barter
Musil
Picerno
Kling/EconLog
Galt/Asymmetrical
DeLong
Drezner
Hobbs
Kiesling
Brown
Samuelson
OMBWatch
MISES
ChicagoBoyz
Blankenship
Centrists.org
Krugman
EconoData
Economagic
BEA
BLS
FREDII
UNCLE SAM'S REFERENCE SHELF
EIA WORLD OIL PRICES & MKT
OMB
CBO
BUDGET HIST TABLES
U.S. Treasury Yields
TaxFacts
FAIRMODEL
OECD
CEE
CRB INDICES
Taxblog
Memri
EPI
EIA
ITEP
CATO
COMMANDING HEIGHTS
SBSC
NAM
ARGMAX
Reference Desk
Info Please
Google News
Economic Calendar
Babelfish Translation
Reporter's Desktop
Cost of Living Comparator
EconoPolitics
TechCentralStation
DRUDGE
CommandPost
WSJOpinionJournal
NationalReview
Instapundit
Rosenblog
Front Page
Nation
New Republic
Monthly Review
Kaus
Larry Kudlow
Milt Rosenberg
EconoArchives
06/01/2003 - 07/01/2003
07/01/2003 - 08/01/2003
08/01/2003 - 09/01/2003
09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003
10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003
11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003
12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004
01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004
02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004
03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004
04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004
05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004
06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004
07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004
08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004
09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004
10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004
11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004
12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005
01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005
02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005
03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005
04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005
05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005
06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005
07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005
08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005
09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005
10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005
11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005
12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006
01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006
02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006
03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006
04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006
05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006
06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006
07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006
08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006
09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006
10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006
02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007
03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007
04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007
05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007
06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007
07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007
10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007
11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007
12/01/2007 - 01/01/2008
02/01/2008 - 03/01/2008
03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008
04/01/2008 - 05/01/2008
05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008
06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008
07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008
08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008
09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008
10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008
11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008
12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009
01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009
02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009
EconoTipJar
EconoEmail
steven.antler@gmail.com
