Friday, February 6, 2009

The Stimulus


"You've got some economists and some folks who think they're economists. By the way, theses days everybody thinks they're economists."


President Obama casually joked while stressing the need for the U.S. Senate to pass a stimulus package that was around $700 billion, but has now gone beyond $900 billion. With public support for his stimulus plan falling from %46 to now %34, President Obama now feels pressure to pass his stimulus plan as quickly as possible. President Obama cites that the U.S. economy is in the same dire straits as it found it's self during the Great Depression, even though Wall Street analysts say that while the economy is in a slump, it's nowhere near the level experienced during the 1930's.


As the American public becomes more aware of the pork barrel spending that makes up a majority of the bill, the less likely they will be to support such a measure. Obama knows this, which is why he's pushing so hard for this bill, but spending almost a trillion taxpayer dollars over the next several years just to simply grow the government doesn't sound like economic stimulus to me. And the more that the American public learns of this, the less likely they will believe that such a radical step is necessary.


It's true that there are economists, and then there are those who think they are. However, if I remember correctly Obama's major at Harvard was Law, not economics, so I guess it would be safe to say that he's (Obama) not an economists either.