Will $300 billion fix the economy? President Obama hopes so. According to early reports from the White House - the President's job creation plan set to be unveiled Thursday night will come with a price tag of $300 billion - a number that is likely too high for Republicans to support - given they likely can't support a $20 dollar job creation package - and also a number far too low for many progressives hoping the President would go bold and throw a trillion dollar package out there. More troubling - only about $50 billion of that $300 billion will ACTUALLY go toward rebuilding our nation's crumbling infrastructure. The rest will go to tax cuts that have been proven to not have nearly as much bang for the buck as stimulus.
The President does plan to extend unemployment benefits also - a critical measure to ease the suffering of millions of unemployed Americans and stimulate the economy - but also a measure that Republicans will target for removal first in negotiations. President Obama's stimulus package in 2009 kept our economy from a Great Depression - but it wasn't nearly big enough to re-boot strong job growth. His own economic advisors told him this - but he decided to compromise with Republicans in the Senate by reducing its size and throwing in some tax cuts. As a result - Republicans can make the argument that it failed. Now - it looks like President Obama is making the same mistake twice - with a stimulus package that is too small to work.
It's time to dump the post-partisan-President mantra - and start acting like FDR and Harry Truman. Go bold with a jobs plan tomorrow - and beat the Republicans over the head with it until November.
-Thom
(What do you think president Obama should do? Tell us here.)
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