Report: Obama Doubling Down – Will Propose Stimulus II After Labor Day

Ace, reporting on the latest grim economic news, concludes we’re in another recession – Obama’s very own recession:

I know the response is “We never left the last one,” but, again, as a technical matter (as these things are strictly defined) we did, and, as a messaging matter, it’s actually politically better for us if this is the Obama Recession, not a continuation of the Bush one.

***

You know, I think someone else mentioned this, but maybe I realized it. When Obama was on this supposed non-political listening tour in swing states, he actually wasn’t presenting a plan, of course.

He was promising he would have a plan.

That’s odd, isn’t it?

What kind of SCOAMF does that? Mounts a twenty car convoy in Darth Vader’s heavy-metal band side-project tour bus when he has no actual news to report, nothing new? Just the promise that in ten days or so he might (fingers crossed!) have something to say?

In case you’re wondering what a SCOAMF is (don’t click if you’re easily offended): CONTENT WARNING: > here.

Well, he has a plan, alright. The Tatler reports that Obama’s idea to “jump-start the economy” and spur jobs will be announced after labor day:

What could be his new, imaginative idea?”

Could be Stimulus II?

Yes, after the failure of the first $800 billion round of stimulus, the President’s best idea may be to recommend more stimulus spending.

Today’s Washington Post is floating a trial balloon from White House aides that report:”President Obama has decided to press Congress for a new round of stimulus spending.”  No dollar amounts were mentioned.

Yesterday during his bus tour in Atkinson, Illinois the President prepared his audience for his new economic policy, saying he would cut spending by spending more.  The two, he said, are not inconsistent. “When Congress gets back in September, my basic argument to them is this: We should not have to choose between getting our fiscal house in order and jobs and growth.”

A “new round” because the first round was such a raging success. Isn’t that wonderful? Paul Krugman always said we didn’t spend enough in the first stimulus, which is why (he says) it failed. He wants another $800 billion stimulus:

According to Paul Krugman of The New York Times, we need another $800 billion stimulus. The first one, you see, wasn’t big enough. “The stimulus right now makes almost no difference,” Krugman recently said at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul. And for those who worry about the deficit, he had these soothing words: “What does a trillion dollars of borrowing do to the U.S. long-run fiscal position?”

As F.A. Hayek said:

A stimulus will only stimulate the deficit: Past experience with trying to fine-tune the economy shows that counter-cyclical fiscal and monetary policy can sometimes make matters much worse (as in the 1970s). Wise politicians would therefore be advised not to meddle, however much their instincts tell them to show voters they’re doing something.

About these ads