Posted on 01/08/2009 5:06:58 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Barack Obama declared yesterday that only unprecedented and urgent government spending could prevent the deepening recession stretching for years into the future.
Eleven days before taking office, the US President-elect said that he was entering his presidency “in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime”.
The “day of reckoning” had arrived, he said, and the risks of “doing too little or nothing at all” were even greater than those of allowing a federal deficit – already projected to reach the record figure of $1.2 trillion – to spiral on into the years to come.
Mr Obama used his first major policy speech since his election to call on Congress to act quickly on his request to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the American economy. He said that figures to be released today would reveal that the United States lost more jobs last year than at any time since the Second World War.
“At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe,” Mr Obama said. “Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy.”
Mr Obama’s speech was his most outspoken public pitch so far for his massive spending plan. It was the frankest recognition of his belief in the role of government to save the economy.
The President-elect’s words were strongly welcomed by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling as clear evidence of a growing world consensus that governments must support their economies with fiscal injections.
A Downing Street official said: “We agree with every word of his call for action. You need to take action and you need to take action now to avoid a much deeper and longer recession.”
Mr Obama’s pledge came as British
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Uh, we’re screwed
Splat ...
How can an inexperienced “Fifthgrader” lead us to the promised land? This guy is so incredibly incompetant and arrogant that the only position he could get was a government job. America, wake up! We have been sold down the river by the politicians.
Ok, so we will just be continuing Bush’s policies. Cool.
“The American Mugabe” speaks!
To a point I agree.
Not just the government. The wealthy have to open wallets, companies need to buy stuff, banks need to unfreeze credit people need to stop being afraid.
Yep. Goddam gibbering socialist idiots are intentionally seeking to destroy the currency. Solve a credit bubble by inflating the credit to unheard of and untenable dimensions. Makes all kinds of sense. I suggested a month or two ago that this situation is beyond fixing, that the only course of action that has a chance of survival is to do nothing. But no political whore will ever stand the hell back when they can dig in amd make things worse.
Well of course! Because FDR was sooo successful at spending his way out of a recession with his New Deal, thereby saving the economy and averting a Depression...
...er, oops.
There's that "concensus" word again. Boy, the libs just love that word. Government "support" merely prolongs the pain.
And just wait until Congress allows the Bush tax cuts to expire.
Ok, so we will just be continuing Bush’s policies. Cool.
Anyone with half a brain will realize that we are where we are because we’ve been stimulated to death ever since Clinton came into office. Most Americans are up to their ears in debt—putting $1000 dollars in someones pocket will not make much a difference when your $20K or more in debt.
Whatever. We (Americans) bought the ticket, now we’re going to take the ride. The Republicans in Congress are going to do little/nothing to slow down this train aside from spewing some empty rhetoric. Very soon we will be in a position where we can’t even pay the interest on our debt anymore and then watch out. You’ll know we’ve reached a state of economic canabalism when there is a tax on assets like Charlie (the Hustler) Rangel says. And even that may be just the beginning....
Now THAT is the height of generational narcissism, myopia, and arrogance, and he's in my generation. Gee, we are so deprived here in the US that people trampled and killed a Walmart employee so that they could buy an X-box. We're so deprived that only a portion of the population has iPods and iPhones. We're so deprived that $2+ a cup coffee places like Starbucks have had to close a few outlets. This is clearly much worse than experienced by those in the world who can't feed their children, who were shot because they challenged the tanks in Tianamen square, or in Hungary, or because they got too close to the Berlin Wall. Much worse than where we were the morning after two of our tallest buildings, along with 3000 people, were lost in New York.
This is clearly a bigger crises than World War II, the Cuban missle crises, the Cold War, the Korean war, the War on Terror. Unbelievable.
Obama is mad as a hatter.
It won’t work. What the government should do is precisely nothing. They should stop what they are doing. They have done too much and created the mess we are in now. Obama’s tax cuts and increased spending is right out of the Keynsian playbook that got us here. How about some action based on Austrian thought, for a change?
Some of us are going to save what we have!
Semper Fi
An Old Man
Remember what Rahm Emmanuel said- A crisis is time to push things through that normally would never get off the ground. This is why Zero is magnifying the problems so. If Republicans go for this, we need to call each one of them and tell them to be counted on not being re-elected. My phone is going to be very busy this year.
If that plan is implemented, expect a long recession.
0bama is full of shit and will never be my president, nor will anyone he appoints rule over me in any fashion or manner.
out of a recession into a depression he means.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.