Obama Pushes $900 Billion Stimulus Package

The president just got finished giving a speech promoting passage of his stimulus package. I found it kind of weird. I mean, as usual, Obama served as his own best spokesman. But he seemed a little peeved. If the bill is in trouble, he has no one to blame but himself. The White House chose to pretty much take a hands-off approach to the package other than setting some broad parameters. Pelosi & Co. wrote it and stuffed it full off stuff that had nothing to do with stimulating the economy nor contributing to long-run economic growth.

Yes, the Republicans are pushing tax cuts, but so are many liberal economists who think, for instance, that cutting the payroll tax would provide a huge boost to the economy. Liberals have also assailed the package for being to wimpy on things like infrastructure spending and moving toward a "green" economy. I am pretty sure if Larry Summers, Austan Goolsbee, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein said in a room and came up with a package, it would be a vast improvement on the mishmash that congressional Dems have devised.