PEBO to Make Dire Forecast of World Without Stimulus; Also Will Push More Regulation
Email"I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible," the President-elect will say this morning in a speech on the economy.
He will make a dire prediction: "If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. We could lose a generation of potential and promise, as more young Americans are forced to forgo dreams of college or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. And our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world. In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse."
Mr. Obama will also acknowledge that "There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable. It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy. It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy – where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.
"That is why we need to act boldly and act now to reverse these cycles. That’s why we need to put money in the pockets of the American people, create new jobs, and invest in our future. That’s why we need to re-start the flow of credit and restore the rules of the road that will ensure a crisis like this never happens again.
"That work begins with this plan – a plan I am confident will save or create at least three million jobs over the next few years. It is not just another public works program. It’s a plan that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment – the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work, even as, all around the country, there is so much work to be done. That’s why we’ll invest in priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century. That’s why the overwhelming majority of the jobs created will be in the private sector, while our plan will save the public sector jobs of teachers, cops, firefighters and others who provide vital services."
Mr. Obama will try to argue that this stimulus plan will be different than previous spending proposals.
"I understand that some might be skeptical of this plan," he will say. "Our government has already spent a good deal of money, but we haven’t yet seen that translate into more jobs or higher incomes or renewed confidence in our economy. That’s why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan won’t just throw money at our problems – we’ll invest in what works. The true test of the policies we’ll pursue won’t be whether they’re Democratic or Republican ideas, but whether they create jobs, grow our economy, and put the American Dream within reach of the American people.
"Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible. Every American will be able to hold Washington accountable for these decisions by going online to see how and where their tax dollars are being spent. And as I announced yesterday, we will launch an unprecedented effort to eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending that has never been more unaffordable for our nation and our children’s future than it is right now."
He will also talk about other steps needed to help the economy.
"Now, this recovery plan alone will not solve all the problems that led us into this crisis," he will say. "We must also work with the same sense of urgency to stabilize and repair the financial system we all depend on. That means using our full arsenal of tools to get credit flowing again to families and business, while restoring confidence in our markets. It means launching a sweeping effort to address the foreclosure crisis so that we can keep responsible families in their homes. It means preventing the catastrophic failure of financial institutions whose collapse could endanger the entire economy, but only with maximum protections for taxpayers and a clear understanding that government support for any company is an extraordinary action that must come with significant restrictions on the firms that receive support. And it means reforming a weak and outdated regulatory system so that we can better withstand financial shocks and better protect consumers, investors, and businesses from the reckless greed and risk-taking that must never endanger our prosperity again.
"No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through regulatory cracks. No longer can we allow special interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales. No longer can we allow the unscrupulous lending and borrowing that leads only to destructive cycles of bubble and bust.
"It is time to set a new course for this economy, and that change must begin now. We should have an open and honest discussion about this recovery plan in the days ahead, but I urge Congress to move as quickly as possible on behalf of the American people. For every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs. More families will lose their savings. More dreams will be deferred and denied. And our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."
- jpt
Mitt Romney's Full Speech at CPAC 2012 
Romney Makes His Case to Conservatives at CPAC
Now that’s a President we can believe in!
Posted by: Danny Gorgievski | January 8, 2009, 7:58 am 7:58 am
We CAN’T believe in this. The article doesn’t make sense.
Posted by: anonymous | January 8, 2009, 8:34 am 8:34 am
Thank God the Do-nothing Bush has less than 2 weeks to leave the mantle to a “real” President who cares and is willing to tackle America’s problems head-on.
Yes President Obama, this is the change we voted for.
Posted by: Steve_NJ | January 8, 2009, 8:38 am 8:38 am
He’s making sure everyone knows BEFORE he is inaugurated that he won’t be able to fix the economy. This is his way of saying, “Don’t blame me – I can’t fix the mess, even though I SAID I COULD WHEN I CAMPAIGNED.”
Washington is useless and we are sinking deeper and deeper into recession.
I predict a time in the not too distant future when there will be mass protests and violence against our government here in the U.S. by Americans. This country will be torn with internal fighting just like the third-world countries. The government doesn’t care, it’s too polluted with corruption and scandal and crime to do anything productive for the American taxpayers.
Posted by: madison | January 8, 2009, 8:39 am 8:39 am
Thanks a bunch, George W. Bush. You added more to the deficit than ALL 42 PRESIDENTS BEFORE YOU COMBINED! Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 8, 2009, 8:42 am 8:42 am
madison,
You will be proven wrong in just 6 short months.
This is America buddy.
Posted by: Steve_NJ | January 8, 2009, 8:42 am 8:42 am
Thanks for the cheery outlook, Madison
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 8, 2009, 8:43 am 8:43 am
Three cheers for inexperienced community organizers. If this jerk can do something intelligent and productive, then there’s hope for Caroline Kennedy who has not even been a community organizer.
Posted by: faceit | January 8, 2009, 8:43 am 8:43 am
“Jerk” does not begin to describe Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and even McCain, Faceit. I can, however, think of some adjectives that apply to that bunch:
Incompetent
Dangerous
Ruthless
Corrupt
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 8, 2009, 8:50 am 8:50 am
rose colored glasses must be selling like hot cakes. everything is just dandy here in America
Posted by: normandyfour | January 8, 2009, 8:50 am 8:50 am
On the contrary, normandyfour. Just look what Obama inherits, thanks to the Bush bunch:
War in Iraq
War in Afghanistan
Deficit in the trillions
Worst Economy since the Great Depression
Nearly double-digit unemployment
Iran
Israel/Hamas conflict
Failing automobile industry
Posted by: William J. LePetomane | January 8, 2009, 8:53 am 8:53 am
Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. The Middle Class. Regulate the heck out of Wall Street. Make them work for the US govt and the people. Get our return on investment back from the greedy scum. Jump on GM and Chrysler and make them drop their prices. Tell their mgmt they can make regular salaries like all the rest of us schmucks until they prove they can compete with green cars that Americans can afford.
Posted by: Bob | January 8, 2009, 8:54 am 8:54 am
This is a negative comments about how they wrote. It is going to make us laugh after he sworn in. Just like another Clinton Admin. It is not Bush’s fault.
Posted by: anonymous | January 8, 2009, 8:58 am 8:58 am
Bush is without a doubt a terrible President. But the fact that he stinks will never make Obama smell like a rose. Anyone can look good when compared to bad.
Posted by: MrkMckHan | January 8, 2009, 8:58 am 8:58 am
“”No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through regulatory cracks. No longer can we allow special interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales. No longer can we allow the unscrupulous lending and borrowing that leads only to destructive cycles of bubble and bust.”
————————————
So, does this mean that Barney Frank will fight Obama’s regulation attempts the same way he fought Bush’s?
Posted by: Mike_C | January 8, 2009, 9:24 am 9:24 am
Hey Obamatrons – whatever you think Bush did to deficit spending, your leader just validated it, and then some.
Posted by: Caroline Kennedy | January 8, 2009, 9:43 am 9:43 am
“Only government” “Only government”
Groan
Posted by: B | January 8, 2009, 9:49 am 9:49 am
i like obama,s style he tells teh truth and asks for all americans to work together,also he doesnt look down on the working class and the poor like bush and all republicans do. makes me feel like part of america again. bush made me feel like a low life nobody, he treats the middle class like servants or slaves for him and his rich buddies.
Posted by: T | January 8, 2009, 9:54 am 9:54 am
“It is not just another public works program.”
Oh: not “just” some Rooseveltian piece of fluff … what a RELIEF.
Amid the meaningless blabla quoted above, The CHANGEling yesterday ALSO managed to signal “reform” of Social Security and Medicare … as — don’t laugh! — “a central part” of his effort to control federal spending.
When the Clintons embarked on “welfare reform”, it didn’t work out so well for the black masses and poor whites … and effectively orphaned the children of the poor, with predictable cultural results.
Some savior. Told you so.
Meanwhile, “Gaza” is brewing in … Oakland, over the police execution — recorded by bystanders’ cell phones –
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 10:10 am 10:10 am
jpt quotes The CHANGEling:
“Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible.”
“Independent experts”?? Hahaha: nobody the ruling junta of crooks accepts as an “expert” IS “independent”.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 10:16 am 10:16 am
“Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. ”
He just said yesterday that he was going to have trillion dollar deficits for the next several years. So he is proposing spending 3 trillion to save 1 trillion?
“That’s why we’ll invest in priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century. ”
Education is not a short term stimulus. Health care is not a short term stimulus. It would be nice if he would build 20 new nuclear reactors but thats not going to happen in 2009 either.
“Mr. Obama will try to argue that this stimulus plan will be different than previous spending proposals.
“I understand that some might be skeptical of this plan,” he will say. “Our government has already spent a good deal of money, but we haven’t yet seen that translate into more jobs or higher incomes or renewed confidence in our economy….Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made transparently, and informed by independent experts wherever possible.”
If you were grading a student who turned in this paper you’d have to give it a C. Is he really saying that what was wrong on the past stimulus was that there wasnt enough transparency? The middle class largely used the stimulus checks to pay down debt, end of story. No amount of ‘transparency’ is going to change that.
He still hasnt told is what is different and what will be dont in 2009.
“investors, and businesses from the reckless greed and risk-taking that must never endanger our prosperity again.”
oh boy. I guess someone slept through econ 101.
Posted by: BertieW | January 8, 2009, 10:19 am 10:19 am
It doesn’t matter politically if Obama’s plan works or not. He has to give the appearance of trying something. It’s politics. At this point, the government can’t sit back and say, “let the strong survive and the weak die”. If $1 trillion+ tax dollars eventually turn out to be money down the drain, we’ll just crank up the presses. This whole story can be interpreted as, “we must be percieved as taking action, even if it doesn’t work”. POLITICS!
Posted by: LongT | January 8, 2009, 10:21 am 10:21 am
“At this point, the government can’t sit back and say, “let the strong survive and the weak die”.”
Unless He intends to “reform” Medicare and Social Security to the standard that was intended for Social Security when it was developed — that everyone would pay in, and those who had no other retirement would draw it — that’s exactly what He DOES mean.
Given the Clinton approach to National Health and “welfare reform” — a lot of self-promoting publicity and designed-to-go-nowhere top-down blabla, followed by turning over public health AND dispossessed single mothers to the corporate-profit machine, we might as well start the revolution NOW.
All this, and escalation in Afghanistan, too? Lord knows THAT’s “the American Dream” …
The Jesse Jacksons better get this guy out of there, while they still can, or get ready for the Gazafication of the cities.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 10:31 am 10:31 am
Someone said it best yesterday about barry’s absurd statements regarding the economy. It’s like going up to your teacher and saying
“hey, I am only gonna be able to do ‘C’ work, but I, uh, really do deserve an ‘A’”.
All of those unemployed people who took the time to get off their couches, set down their welfare-bought beers, to go out and vote for barry O are going to be pretty disappointed when he doesn’t personally deliver them a new pair of shoes like he promised.
Posted by: Dave | January 8, 2009, 10:31 am 10:31 am
“He has to give the appearance of trying something.”
Saying a lot of nothing may pass for “the appearance” of trying something to His followers in the corporate propaganda machine, but the fact that the price of groceries has doubled is a SIGNIFICANT matter to … the poor.
After “stop the drama, vote Obama”, it’s kind of a rhetorical assault on the electorate that He now decrees “dramatic action” — hahaha — and names his pre-perestrokia Soviet style bla-bla by a phrase His pablum-producers apparently designed hoping it would be confused with AARP (American Association of Retired Persons).
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 10:40 am 10:40 am
“pretty disappointed when he doesn’t personally deliver them a new pair of shoes like he promised.”
When a few dozen truckloads of shoes come His way, what then?
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 10:43 am 10:43 am
“His pre-perestrokia Soviet style bla-bla”
oops, typing error: “His pre-perestroika Soviet-style bla-bla”
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 10:49 am 10:49 am
Anything he does from now until when he goes back to the Chicago slums that he descended from, had better be in America’s best interest. If he doesn’t act in our best interest he will be looking at impeachment, like the last democrat clown president.
Posted by: Barryisafraud | January 8, 2009, 10:54 am 10:54 am
Hope certainly seems to have flown out the window.
The way our politics are, nobody running for or in office has ever suffered from being too dire about the economy. Or the state of the nation in general.
Posted by: MayBee | January 8, 2009, 10:55 am 10:55 am
This is all with out meaning.
The drudgereport.com has an article where the Chinese will no longer finance our debt.
The game is over.
Posted by: Hannibal Lechter | January 8, 2009, 11:07 am 11:07 am
“Hope certainly seems to have flown out the window.”
But atleast the obamabots still have change! change! change!
Posted by: dave | January 8, 2009, 11:11 am 11:11 am
“the Chinese will no longer finance our debt.”
China bats last . . .
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 11:14 am 11:14 am
A democracy will continue to exist up until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
Posted by: LongT | January 8, 2009, 11:23 am 11:23 am
Why don’t you all stop whinning. Saying crap like “His pre-perestroika Soviet-style bla-bla” is not getting us anywhere. He is at least attempting to do something. He had nothing to do with this mess getting started, leave all that blame to the goof who holds office right now. I can not wait for 12 more days when he will be out of office and someone with competence can step in and do something.
Posted by: sheldon kinney | January 8, 2009, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
“No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through regulatory cracks.” Yes it is time to do the job that Greenspan, Rubin, Larry Summers, and mostly Republicans fought against in the 1990s through Bush’s 8 yrs.
They destroyed the reputation of Ms Born, Chairman of the CFTC in the mid to late1990s because she wanted to regulate “credit default swaps” (CDSs) that could have prevented a major portion of the current financial mess. It would also have prevented the $4.00 gas.
Everyone believed Greenspan was infallible.
After receiving money from Enron and investment banks, Senate Banking Chairman Repub. Phil Gramm, nation of whiners, pulled a slick move to get it through Congress.
Congress is now working on regulating the $60 to over $100 trillion CDS market.
Congress failed to act from 2001 to 2008 after the Enron failure.
Summers should make a public apology to Ms Born. Obama might consider her for his economic team.
Posted by: Julie | January 8, 2009, 12:09 pm 12:09 pm
“Congress failed to act from 2001 to 2008 after the Enron failure.”
What do you call Sarbanes-Oxley? That little bit of knee jerk political grandstanding has been a major hit to the IT profession and lead to the off shoring outsourcing to tens of thousands of jobs.
Its interesting to reflect that the Madoff fraud was only possible because there was a regulatory apparatus. If you are an insider of the regulators, like the Fannie Mae and Madoff donations, then you assume an air of legitimacy that you couldnt have absent regulation, and thus are able to fool people.
Posted by: BertieW | January 8, 2009, 12:27 pm 12:27 pm
“Congress is now working on regulating the $60 to over $100 trillion CDS market.”
That sounds like an impossible task. I’ve heard the CDSs were designed not to leave behind a trail that could be followed in addition to being a system designed to thwart understanding by the average person. They’ve also been co-mingled with other paper to an international extent. They should be outlawed, rather than regulated which seems futile.
Posted by: kat | January 8, 2009, 12:35 pm 12:35 pm