Free Republic

The government's economic stimulus spending has already had its biggest impact and probably won't contribute to significant growth next year, a top White House adviser said Thursday. Christina Romer, the chair of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said the initial jolt of the $787 billion stimulus expanded the economy in the second and third quarters of this year. But she said the remaining spending will simply keep the economy from slipping. "By mid-2010," she said, "fiscal stimulus will likely be contributing little to further growth." That assessment underscored the fragility of an economic recovery marked by stubbornly high...

Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected on a promise to clean up the fiscal mess but so far has failed. His first act as governor was to reinstate a $4-plus billion a year car tax cut that widened the deficit, and since then, he has spent every nickel the state has taken in and then some, even though a vigorous economy pushed revenue to record levels. While the deficit narrowed a bit in the last couple of years, it's projected to grow again for the remainder of this decade -- and the remainder of Schwarzenegger's governorship -- unless he and lawmakers do...

Civility Is In, Rancor Out on Web Site Begun by Democratic, GOP Strategists A group of political strategists who have spent years firing heavy artillery at each other came together at the Hay-Adams Hotel yesterday, put aside their weapons, decried the polarized state of debate in America and vowed a new approach to peaceful coexistence. Toward that end, they are launching a Web site that they hope will eventually reach 30 million opinion leaders, elevate public discussion on matters from politics to sports to culture and, in the process, make them some money. Mark McKinnon and Matthew Dowd, who were...