Many of our political leaders have stated that the passage of the second recovery plan is: “the beginning of the turnaround for the American economy.” This spending package coupled with the first stimulus plan will keep our country from avoiding an economic meltdown or catastrophe. This second stimulus plan costing $790 billion will supposedly save or create 3.5 million jobs.
This is a major endeavor if successful will jump start our economy and put it back on track. This was a bipartisan project that was achieved through consensus and negotiation. Obama has been campaigning for his economic recovery plan around the country and now he has the authority to throw billions at our problems.
No one for certainty is convinced that this recovery or re-investment plan will work. This plan was put together in three weeks and the track record of our politicians is extremely shaky, when a plan is created in a short period of time. Our politicians are known to change horses and boats in the middle of the river.
Nevertheless they want the country to believe that this plan was well thought out and strategically sound. This is the same group of leaders who took $350 billion dollars in a month and a half, and have no idea what the banks did with the money. We should emphatically trust them with the allocation of the second $350 billion and give them the authority to spend another $790 billion.
The plan has been given a multiplicity of acronyms and labels for a spending initiative that has the potential to fail. The first major problem that no one has addressed is “Where is the money coming from.”
In elementary economics, I learned to spend money; you either had to borrow it, work for it, or have it in the bank. It appears that our politicians have the ability to create and spend money without balancing the books. They are arrogant enough to believe that they can spend billions of dollars with no accountability and bookkeeping.
The president and the politicians believe that they can create 31/2 million jobs, normalize the credit market, and stabilize the housing market with this bold plan. They believe with the new economic recovery plan, they can stop the contraction of the economy, and start it expanding again. Fundamentally they will reshape the financial industry, stabilize the value in the housing market, and create confidence in the system.
This is a historical and unprecedented challenge that the new administration is confronting. There are double digit unemployment in minority communities and the banks and financial institutions are inundated with toxic assets. This is a comprehensive problem that will not be fixed with articulate labels and throwing money at monumental problems.
It is impossible to fight two wars, be $11trillion in debt, and fix an economy without balancing the books. You can call the project, “Troubled Asset Relief Plan,” “Recovery Re-Investment Plan,” or “Financial Stability Program,” but the solution remains the same. The solution to our problems will evolve out of collective work and responsibility.
There is no quick fix to the problems in our nation. Obama won the election because of his profound wisdom and insight confronting our nation and the world. He promised a different administration committed to change the fundamentals in Washington politics.
Rushing through a similar program that was just tried by the outgoing administration is definitely not a change. Unprecedented problems require unprecedented solutions that have never been tried before. A copycat plan will ultimately produce the same results.
Obama was able to raise unprecedented amounts of money in his election. It is my belief that Obama is the correct person to lead our country back to stability and greatness. But it will take patience and sound comprehensive polices that positively impact and engages the nation and world.
Before we get credit flowing again to businesses and families, jump start job creation, and return banks to a healthy state, we need to balance our books. There are very limited details that are being provided to the taxpayers, and we are ultimately the ones who will pay for the economic recovery plan.
“Can anyone tell me where the money is coming from to pay for the economic recovery plan?”
Source: Roger Caldwell
