{"id":103,"date":"2009-07-07T20:45:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-08T01:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jparnell.com\/blog\/?p=103"},"modified":"2009-07-07T20:45:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T01:45:00","slug":"another-stimulus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/?p=103","title":{"rendered":"Another Stimulus?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama economic advisor Laura Tyson has suggested that another \u201ceconomic stimulus\u201d is needed to prime the economic pump because the first one just wasn\u2019t big enough. Although not officially speaking for the President, Tyson\u2019s sentiment dovetails Vice President Biden\u2019s lament that the \u201cwe misread how bad the economy was.” Could another stimulus be in the works? Andrew Wilkow (www.wilkowmajority.com<\/a>) and I discussed this topic briefly on his show today, but I want to cover it again on the blog.<\/p>\n

Obama and his team of \u201cleading economists\u201d told us earlier this year that the $787 billion stimulus was necessary for a 2009 recovery. It is worth noting the most recessions last 12-18 months, so a mid- to late 2009 recovery would have been expected anyway. We were told that most of the stimulus money would be spent in 2009 to create jobs, keeping the unemployment rate below 8%. With unemployment approaching 10% today, some are suggesting that $787 billion package might not have been enough.<\/p>\n

This sounds familiar. After spending $15 trillion (estimates vary), progress in the \u201cWar on Poverty\u201d has been limited to say the least. Federal, state, and local governments spend an average of about $10,000 annually per child in our public schools, yet we hear that massive additional infusions are still necessary. The problem is a philosophical one. Those on the left believe that government intervention can solve most of our social and economic problems. When a government program doesn\u2019t work, they simply refer to it as a \u201cstep in the right direction\u201d that requires more spending to achieve the desired effect. Leftists never abandon the big-government worldview despite evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s comments about the current state of the economy do contain a kernel of truth, however. The Obama administration DID misread the economy in January, which gives rise to 3 questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If the Obama economic team is so talented, then why did they make such a costly mistake?<\/li>\n
  2. What confidence should we have in his team\u2019s current assessment of the economy?<\/li>\n
  3. Did the lingering recession and increase in unemployment really come as a surprise?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The answer to the first question is self-evident. Obama\u2019s far left economic team underestimates the power of capitalism and overestimates government\u2019s ability to engineer growth. This is not a stellar group, and we should have no more confidence in its current assessment than in the original one. Biden left out an inconvenient truth, however. Hundreds of economists saw this coming and went on the record in January 9\u2019s Wall Street Journal<\/em> (http:\/\/www.cato.org\/special\/stimulus09\/cato_stimulus.pdf<\/a>). The Obama team still does not understand how to fix the economy but will likely continue to spend massive amounts of money we don\u2019t have and until good things happen or we put a stop to it.<\/p>\n

    Of course, sooner or later our economy will experience some sort of recovery. But the first stimulus has already ballooned the deficit and sowed the seeds of inflation, which will eventually cause interest rates to rise. Keep in mind that low interest rates are needed to spur a lasting recovery in the housing market and we can see how much damage has already been done, and we haven\u2019t even considered the negative effects of a looming health care entitlement expansion yet.<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s my advice to the President? Stop the assault on capitalism and leave things alone. You\u2019ll be surprised how quickly we can recover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Obama economic advisor Laura Tyson has suggested that another \u201ceconomic stimulus\u201d is needed to prime the economic pump because the first one just wasn\u2019t big enough. Although not officially speaking for the President, Tyson\u2019s sentiment dovetails Vice President Biden\u2019s lament that the \u201cwe misread how bad the economy was.” Could another stimulus be in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}