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Musicmystery -> RE: Obama Plan to create 2.5 Million Jobs (11/26/2008 5:27:03 AM)
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quote:
Obama wouldn't be taking on the roll of FDR.....but instead more like one closer to Herbert Hoover. Hardly. Hoover insisted on trying to balance the budget as the economy spiraled downward. Just before Oct. 1929, 1000 economists sent him a petition explaining why he should not sign the tariff legislation he was chasing. Hoover refused, contributing substantially to the mess. FDR came later---and at first didn't do so well...the New Deal took time to create. Currently, we need infrastructure improvements. We have for a while. Fixing that is indeed new jobs, and government spending ALSO goes into GDP, as does the multiplier effects of the money those workers in turn spend. Consumers and businesses aren't spending, so giving them more money doesn't (in the short run) help much (as they are saving instead). Also--printing money is not automatically hyperinflation. We are at or near the liquidity trap---interest rates are already low, can only be lowered so much, and so lowering them further loses effectiveness. Additionally, we are at the door of deflation. So, short term, it's a reasonable approach, coupled with the Fed again withdrawing that currency bit by bit when the economy recovers (and they can then raise interest rates). The argument that "more is better" some have introduced is silly. No one is saying forever, and we've been in and out of this in the past. It's equally silly to say tax cuts are always good, the more the better. Right now, yes. But in good times people argue for this too, when in fact we should be pushing for tax increases during those times---unless you want to argue that eliminating all taxes will leave us flush with cash. However each of you sees it, the government does play important roles, and those roles need funding. The deficit is also a serious problem. But Obama is correct--first things first. Get on our feet again, over the next two years, and then start to address the deficit. Starting to chip away at health care will also help. The U.S. spends more per capita on health care than any other nation--but we don't have universal health care. Why? Instead of preventing problems, we send people to the emergency room for angioplasties and other costly emergency procedures. This has always been foolish, and needs to change. Bush is doing essentially nothing about the economy. Obama needs to continue to step forward and address the problem.
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