Obama unveils economic stimulus plan

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 1/3/09 | AFP

[woweeitsme]

Hmmm....ARRP...sounds like one of those fabulous New Deal acronyms.

Yippee! The Great Depression will be here!

[BreeLee]

Cartoon by Chuck Asay

[Moonman62]

Seems more like a plan to stimulate the government.

[TwelveOfTwenty]

Obama said he wanted to return to Clinton's economic policies, but it looks like he has figured out that it was the tech boom, not anything Clinton did, that gave us our economic growth. It appears to me that's he's trying to start another boom, this time in infrastructure.

The difference is that private industry paid for the web servers, the development of the web software, and later the COBOL programmers for Y2K, etc. that brought about the tech boom. What is Obama going to pay for this with?

[razorback-bert]

Still no details.

[meyer]

What is Obama going to pay for this with?

He's going to pay with it by stealing the income and wealth from the earners, just like any other socialist/liberal.

[silverleaf]

Unlike Vanna White, Obummer is not hoping we’ll buy a vowel ....

“unveling a broad plan”....hoo ha.

Is that what the driveby media now call “blowing smok_ up our _ss_s”?

[misterrob]

Tech boom was created due to fraud, government interference in the market and greed. The fraud was in the stock market, the interference was the government policies on asset sharing by regulated incumbents and greed was people thinking that we needed fiber optics everywhere, that dotcom companies’ share prices could go up forever despite lacking revenues and that basic laws of business didn’t apply.

[TwelveOfTwenty]

I don't agree entirely. There were some tangible if temporary needs that brought about the tech boom. The Internet as we use it now came on in the early 90's (maybe the late 80's), which brought the need for servers, developers, new tools such as Java which brought the need for more developers, Internet security experts, and others. Later, when it became apparent that the mainframes that were supposed to have been replaced by 2000 were going to be around for at least a few more years, more programmers were needed for Y2K.

As you said, everyone thought it would last forever, but it couldn't. Once the servers were in place, the web applications were running, security measures had been designed, and older mainframes knew the difference between the years 1900 and 2000, many of those developers were laid off, and the bubble burst.

A year later, Bush took office, and the left blamed him for the recession that followed.

[TornadoAlley3]

Any link to his “plan”? I saw a talking head on Fox news last week saying golf courses and water parks etc were included in this stimulus package.

[clamper1797]

Here is the Obama stimulus package team ...

[meatloaf]

“Why on earth do we need 600,000 more government employees???”
We obviously don’t. Obama understands patronage and the ability to buy votes. Once 2010 rolls around he needs all the influence he can get to avoid a mass extinction of Dumocrats in Congress.

Since the percetion of a recovering economy always lags the actual event, 2010 is shaping up as deadly for Dumocrats. Puff needs all the help he can get.

Dumocrat motto: “Vote early and often. And line’em up a few years beforehand.”

[Deetes]

“vigorous oversight and strict accountability”

Here is where the 600,000 gov. jobs come from . Give me a break .

[edge10]

Where’s the beef? I know this is just an article, but it is filled with the same ‘hope and change’ kind of generalities that won’t cut once Zero is in the center seat.

[WOSG]

“we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double digit unemployment”

Unemployment is only 6.7% or so right now. Obama is bascially predicting an economic catastrophe on his watch.

... but why? He needs to set up a scenario of utter gloom so taht when his stimulus doesnt actually do anything, he merely say we avoided something far far worse.

I dont think it is a credible prediction at all that if the govt didnt do this so-called stimulus that unemployment would go that high.

[ArmstedFragg]

What is Obama going to pay for this with?

After that tax cut for the 95 percent, I guess it'll be with five grand a head from the other 5 percent of Americans.

[Ciexyz]

by taxing my capital gains, I assume.

[randita]

Too much government intervention prolonged the Great Depression. Obama is about to repeat the mistakes of the past which will prolong this one as well.

Pay off debts and raise cash, unless you’re a very savvy investor.

[CottonBall]

He also called for "long-term investments," such as infrastructure building, updating the American healthcare system and building "21st century" learning institutions, on top of "direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers."

Sounds like a lot of government spending to me. Where's the money for it?

[CottonBall]

TOT: What is Obama going to pay for this with?

meyer: He's going to pay with it by stealing the income and wealth from the earners, just like any other socialist/liberal.

No doubt. BUT, like all socialist programs - the top earners will quit earning so much. Apparently, the libs never bothered to study history. Even our own.