Whitehouse.gov and the Stimulus

All kinds of things are changing in Washington right now. Even the White House webpage has gotten a face lift. Obama has shown that his technical team is right on top of things. There is a blog with any announcements and things that are going on and it even has an easy pull down menu where you can see executive orders and proclamations. The ones that he was suppose to be issuing today about Guantanamo are not on there yet, but I anticipate that all of the executive orders will be available as they are officially signed and announced. It seems to be lagging just a bit, but I’m sure that is just a matter of activity that is going on in the new administration right now. Hopefully of the 1700 people that are on the president’s staff, he will have at least one or two tech geeks dedicated to this. This all seems to be part of the openness that he has promised. I like that. Openness is most government situations is a very good thing.

I have also been trying to trudge through the stimulus package, but I have not trudged very far yet. You can trudge too if you would like. I am encouraged, once again, by the openness that is required in the bill, but I am a little discouraged about the vague and large quantity of all of the numbers. Hopefully when I get a chance to look into it further I’ll be more encouraged about the content, although I am dramatically opposed at the Keynesian philosophy behind it. I am firmly convinced by looking at history, that the Keynesian model does not take into consideration the over all flow of money and serves only to expand the size and scope of government, which inherently limits the private sector and further chokes the economy. At best it can have a marginal or net zero effect. At worst it can starve the private sector for cash.

There seems to be a lot of people out there who think that this is the worst economy since the great depression. The numbers don’t back up that claim. The economy that Ronald Reagan inherited from Jimmy Carter was significantly worse. Fortunately for us, President Reagan’s response was the right one and had a positive effect for decades to come. Reduce government. Cut taxes rates. Let the private sector do what it wants to do… thrive!

Sorry just some random thoughts. It's late in the week and I am feeling the strain of a shrinking work team and increased responsibilities.

****Update: Interesting video of testimony before congress about the stimulus package