20 Feb 12
Originally posted by whodeyWe need to spend money now to address the jobs situation, then balance the budget once the economy's on track again. Let's discuss spending cuts when the unemployment rate is below 6%, or preferably even lower. Until then, stimulus spending needs to remain the priority.
Obama recently unvieled his new budget for 2013. He called it the most expensive in US history and it would be a blueprint for an economy to last. However, his own appointed Timothy Geithner disagrees saying that if this budget is inacted, it will be unsustainable.
So if Obama does not listen to his own experts on the economy, then who is he listening to ...[text shortened]... e banned from our schools.
http://freebeacon.com/geithner-admits-obamas-budget-unsustainable/
Would you rather the unemployment rate was up around 12-13%, which Mark Zandi, an economist who advised John McCain's 2008 campaign, estimated it would have reached without Obama's February 2009 stimulus package?
The only safe way to address the deficit in the meantime is raising taxes on the rich, which wouldn't harm the economic recovery. The very rich have more money than they need anyway, and they have a much larger share of the wealth than they did in 1980, so raising their taxes wouldn't have any notable effect on their economic behavior.
Infrastructure and clean energy are good places to be investing right now whilst putting people back to work. China's stimulus package was larger relative to the size of their economy, and this is part of why China recovered faster than the US did.