We Need the Stimulus Bill, But Let’s Not Oversell It

President Barack Obama said today in the Washington Post that he believes his stimulus bill is “a strategy for America’s long-term growth and opportunity …”

With this I disagree.  No single bill, however omnibus it may appear, which was cobbled together over a few weeks by very few Congressional leaders is a “strategy.”  America needs a strategy – first and foremost for dealing with the end of the fossil fuel economy – but that would be an inclusive, collaborative process with as much input from Americans outside of Washington as from those inside the Speaker of the House’s office.

As broad and deep as this bill is, let’s not oversell it.  It’s spending, pure and simple.  When the economy is in the tank, the government primes the pump.  There’s nothing wrong with that, let’s not shy away from it Democrats.  We used to proudly call it Keynesian Economics.

This spending proposal is targeted at projects or proposals which create jobs and create them fast.  The one strategic piece may be the infrastructure outlays, but there again can anything that is rushed be considered strategy?  In the context of today’s U.S. and world economies, this recession is a deadly serious threat to our security.  Priming the pump is the way out of it and that should be enough reason for any member of Congress to vote for it.