Scare tactics from the President

Our President exercised his pull with the media this morning and ran an op-ed piece in the Washington Post detailing his reasons why the country needs this 1 trillion dollar “stimulus plan”. It is also posted on the White House Blog (link in my left hand column). At the very least I am disappointed at the scare tactics that the president is resorting too, intentionally bringing up tragedies in the past, such as Hurricane Katrina, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, and of course the Great Depression.

In his opening paragraph he states that we are in an economic crisis ”…as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression.” I’m not sure which economic factors the president is referring to, but if he is looking at companies collapsing or on the brink of collapsing financially, then he is failing to observe that 2001 was a much bigger economic hiccup. If he is looking at unemployment and GDP then he is ignoring the Carter slump that carried into the early 80s. Obviously times are bad. My company yesterday announced the closing of their wafer fab in Phoenix, and 350 jobs with it. Most people I know are working under some type of work and or pay cut.

Times are tough, but let’s keep our perspective intact.

He goes on to say that “…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,” yet later he turns around and says that even if we pass the economic stimulus plan “our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months.”

So what is our ONE TRILLION DOLLAR debt plan going to get us?

The emphasis of the President’s whole piece is urgency. This plan needs to get passed today. But if you look at the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the stimulus only 60% of the money (at best) will go into the economy by the end of 2010. Almost TWO YEARS! If this is money that really could help the economy now, then why isn’t the bill structured to deliver the money now. Tax cuts are the most expedient way to do that because businesses see the benefit immediately; individuals see the benefit in their next pay check. Tax cuts put money into the market rapidly and with much greater efficiency.

Unfortunately President Obama doesn’t hold a very high opinion of tax cuts and doesn’t think that the American people do either. He states, “I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change.” I’m sure that the change the people were wanting was not a dramatic leap in national debt or budget deficits. If the President would like to consult the people on this “change” then he would do well to analyze the most recent Gallup poll which shows that only 38% of the people want to see the current stimulus plan pass, or the Rasmussen poll that shows that 57% of Americans think tax cuts will stimulate the economy.

The fact is the American people are looking at this bill and realizing that it will do nothing for our economy accept suck more money out of it and put a huge increase in the debt that will be carried by Americans for generations. If this stimulus will really be so effective then President Obama would have been better off spending his time and editorial space to detail how this plan will actually create the 3 million jobs that he anticipates. Resorting to scare tactics and depression preaching says a lot about what this bill really is and unfortunately, a lot about the kind of leader that President Obama looks to be. Some things in Washington may have changed, but the “trust us, we know what’s best for you”, elitist mentality is fully intact.