That, clearly, is what Obama will have to do.
...When revised data were released last week, the growth estimate remained stuck at an annual rate of 1.8 percent, compared with 3.1 percent at the end of last year.
More troubling in the latest figures, consumer spending — the largest component of the economy — was especially slow. Stagnant wages and higher prices for gas and food are squeezing family budgets, while falling home equity hurts consumer confidence. That suggests more bad news to come. ...NYT editorial
We have a political party which is so set on winning an election that it is willing to throw us back into deep recession to accomplish its aims. Sooner rather than later, the President will need to take a stand which throws the Republican party's brinkmanship into high relief.
Republican lawmakers have responded to renewed signs of weakness with a jobs plan that prescribes more of the same “fixes” that Republicans always recommend no matter the problem: mainly high-end tax cuts, deregulation, more domestic oil drilling and federal spending cuts.
The White House has offered sounder ideas, including job retraining, plans to boost educational achievement and tax increases to help cover needed spending. But its economic team is mainly focused on negotiations to raise the debt limit, presumably parrying Republican demands for deep spending cuts that could weaken the economy further while still reaching an agreement on the necessary increase.
The grim numbers tell an unavoidable truth: The economy is not growing nearly fast enough to dent unemployment.
Time's up.
... Without a strong recovery, it will be even harder to repair the budget. Continued hard times means low tax revenues and high safety-net spending. ...There’s a long way to go before the economy will thrive without government help.
Republicans in Congress aren't just wrong. They have become morally and politically repugnant. Obama is running the real risk of becoming one of them.
Don't you get it? Obama is one of "them". Always was.
Posted by: Eric Blair | May 31, 2011 at 12:39 PM