A key pillar of the Obama plan is job creation. In the face of deteriorating economic forecasts, Obama has revised his goal upward, to 3 million. For one thing, significantly fewer positions would be created in the absence of any recovery plan. Second, more than 80 percent of these 3 million jobs will be in the private sector, including emerging sectors such as environmental technology. ...
The Obama plan represents not new public works but, rather, investments that will work for the American public. Investments to build the classrooms, laboratories and libraries our children need to meet 21st-century educational challenges. Investments to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil by spurring renewable energy initiatives (many of which are on hold because of the credit crunch). Investments to put millions of Americans back to work rebuilding our roads, bridges and public transit systems. Investments to modernize our health-care system, which is necessary to improve care in the short term and key to driving down costs across the board.
Economic forecasts in lead articles, economic single-syllable suggestions on talk shows, Keynesian remedies laid out in op-ed pieces and blog posts -- all of these are now superceded by a summary in this morning's Washington Post. Larry Summers, who, after all, will be overseeing its implementation, lays out in some detail the Obama economic recovery plan and he is, after all, the head guy. Frankly, the plan looks good.
Of course, just about everything depends on the intelligence and good will of legislators. Your guess is as good as mine on that one. But let's be optimistic just a couple of days before the New Year begins. "There will be no earmarks," Summers writes. Oops -- that's where faith and hope could begin to fade.
