A wise question, indeed, and one we really must ask ourselves as we set about trying to help our nation recover from the current economic downturn. Yes, I choose those words on purpose – “economic downturn”. One of the first things we can do to build a better country for our children is to knock it off with the overheated rhetoric and scare tactics designed to secure partisan advantage. This is not the worst crisis our nation has ever faced – in fact, if you take the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War One, Great Depression, World War Two, Cold War and Vietnam you’ll swiftly realize that this isn’t even in the top five. And, also, right now the economy isn’t nearly as bad as it was under Carter. So, take a breath and stop listening to those who are implying that unless we do something right now, we’re all going to be miserable.
Things, though, need to be done – but not just any, old things. We need to carefully review where we are and where we wish to be in a year, two years, five years, ten years. As President-elect Obama will have a large role in what will happen, we can do no better, for the moment, than review his plan. So:
Now, the very fact that this crisis is largely of our own making means that it is not beyond our ability to solve. Our problems are rooted in past mistakes, not our capacity for future greatness. It will take time, perhaps many years, but we can rebuild that lost trust and confidence. We can restore opportunity and prosperity. We should never forget that our workers are still more productive than any on Earth. Our universities are still the envy of the world. We are still home to the most brilliant minds, the most creative entrepreneurs, and the most advanced technology and innovation that history has ever known. And we are still the nation that has overcome great fears and improbable odds. If we act with the urgency and seriousness that this moment requires, I know that we can do it again.
Excellent, Mr. Obama – I wouldn’t add or subtract a word from that. I am in 100% agreement. Next:
It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy – where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.
Actually, we can’t rely on government at all – government doesn’t create jobs. It can put people to work on the public dime, but that dime is taken from the public which then doesn’t have that dime to spend. The net effect is zero. Every dollar spent by government is a dollar which cannot be spent by workers, investors and small business owners. Only those who are juiced-in to government contracts will benefit…those who lack a political patron or who simply don’t want to get involved in the nauseating game of kickbacks and backscratching will be on the outside looking in. Onward:
That’s why we’ll invest in priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century. That’s why the overwhelming majority of the jobs created will be in the private sector, while our plan will save the public sector jobs of teachers, cops, firefighters and others who provide vital services.
All well and good, but none of it provides the immediate boost you say (and I agree) we need right now in order to jump start the economy. It seems to me that we need to keep people working who have jobs and re-hire people who have recently lost their jobs. Training for the jobs of the future is wonderful. Building a better education system is dandy. Reforming our health care system is stupendous. But none of these things helps us today, on January 9th, 2009, when we need it. They might start helping in 2010 or 2011, but we might have 12% unemployment by then, and our problem will thus be more difficult. We press on:
Finally, this recovery and reinvestment plan will provide immediate relief to states, workers, and families who are bearing the brunt of this recession. To get people spending again, 95% of working families will receive a $1,000 tax cut – the first stage of a middle-class tax cut that I promised during the campaign and will include in our next budget. To help Americans who have lost their jobs and can’t find new ones, we’ll continue the bipartisan extensions of unemployment insurance and health care coverage to help them through this crisis. Government at every level will have to tighten its belt, but we’ll help struggling states avoid harmful budget cuts, as long as they take responsibility and use the money to maintain essential services like police, fire, education, and health care.
If I am to ask what is best for my children (full disclosure: step children, but no matter), then the last thing I need is a $1,000.00 check from Uncle Sam. I’ll be ill serving my fellow Americans – better for us to cut the business tax and capital gains tax and provide strong tax and regulatory incentives for business start ups and expansions. These things will go to “the rich” as our liberals say, but if we are really going to set aside our differences and work from a “what is best for America” paradigm, then another thing we have to do is cease this battle against our own. Rich Americans (as defined by liberals, who never seem to include Ted Kennedy) are Americans, too – let commit to no longer demonizing our fellow Americans but, instead, call upon them to act in the best interests of the nation and trust that God and their consciences will lead them to the correct decisions. Meanwhile, lightening the tax burden will get new investments rolling and thus jump start the economy. One more into the breech:
No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through regulatory cracks. No longer can we allow special interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales. No longer can we allow the unscrupulous lending and borrowing that leads only to destructive cycles of bubble and bust.
Which is all excellent, but only tackles half the problem. When government strictly regulates an industry – as you wish to do even more so, now – that industry gains a vested interest in keeping Congress happy. This means that bags of regulated industry money will flow to Congressmen who can make or break a business – such as those loans set up for House and Senate members who were allegedly overseeing the financial industry which managed to meltdown in spite of all the oversight. If we are to get into further regulation, then we have to get the politics out of it. We have to ensure that regulations are written and enforced in the interests of the people, not for the benefit of the well-connected few. How to do this is a thorny issue, but the fact that Mr. Obama fails to mention it raises very large questions about how informed he is of the true state of affairs. And now lets take it on home:
It is time to set a new course for this economy, and that change must begin now. We should have an open and honest discussion about this recovery plan in the days ahead, but I urge Congress to move as quickly as possible on behalf of the American people.
This is a stark contradiction – we can’t have an open and honest discussion and speed. We have to carefully weigh each proposal and determine how it effects the whole. This is a process of months, not days or weeks. If we go rushing in then we will be fools – if we don’t know precisely what we’re doing with a trillion or more dollars, then it will wind up a trillion dollars wasted. It is correct to state that things will likely get worse before they get better – but they won’t get better at all if we don’t have a care about what we’re doing.
Point blank, Obama’s plan is highly questionable and very short on the details necessary to render a judgment. Lacking such details, we can only go with what we know, and that is that when government spends a lot of money, we never get what we paid for. In summation, to support the Obama plan right now is to go with the triumph of hope over experience – I realize that Mr. Obama ran on a platform of hope, but I’m not going to sign on to hope for hope’s sake, certainly not hope in what people do, given what we know about people.
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