Obama’s New Stimulus Schemes: Same Bad Song
by Dan MitchellLike a terrible remake of Groundhog Day, the White House has unveiled yet another so-called stimulus scheme. Actually, they have two new proposals to buy votes with our money. One plan is focused on more infrastructure spending, as reported by Politico.
Seeking to bolster the sluggish economy, President Barack Obama is using a Labor Day appearance in Milwaukee to announce he will ask Congress for $50 billion to kick off a new infrastructure plan designed to expand and renew the nation’s roads, railways and runways. …The measures include the “establishment of an Infrastructure Bank to leverage federal dollars and focus on investments of national and regional significance that often fall through the cracks in the current siloed transportation programs,” and “the integration of high-speed rail on an equal footing into the surface transportation program.”
The other plan would make permanent the research and development tax credit. The Washington Post has some of the details.
Under mounting pressure to intensify his focus on the economy ahead of the midterm elections, President Obama will call for a $100 billion business tax credit this week… The business proposal – what one aide called a key part of a limited economic package – would increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, rewarding companies that develop new technologies domestically and preserve American jobs. It would be paid for by closing other corporate tax loopholes, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the policy has not yet been unveiled.
These two proposals are in addition to the other stimulus/job-creation/whatever-they’re-calling-them-now proposals that have been adopted in the past 20 months. And Obama’s stimulus schemes were preceded by Bush’s Keynesian fiasco in 2008. And by the time you read this, the Administration may have unveiled a few more plans. But all of these proposals suffer from the same flaw in that they assume growth is sluggish because government is not big enough and not intervening enough. Keynesian politicians don’t realize (or pretend not to realize) that economic growth occurs when there is an increase in national income. Redistribution plans, by contrast, simply change who is spending an existing amount of income.
If the crowd in Washington really wants more growth, they should reduce the burden of government, as explained in this video.
The best that can be said about the new White House proposals is that they’re probably not as poorly designed as previous stimulus schemes. Federal infrastructure spending almost surely fails a cost-benefit test, but even bridges to nowhere carry some traffic. The money would generate more jobs and more output if left in the private sector, so the macroeconomic impact is still negative, but presumably not as negative as bailouts for profligate state and local governments or subsidies to encourage unemployment – which were key parts of previous stimulus proposals.
Likewise, a permanent research and development tax credit is not ideal tax policy, but at least the provision is tied to doing something productive, as opposed to tax breaks and rebates that don’t boost work, saving, and investment. We don’t know, however, what’s behind the curtain. According to the article, the White House will finance this proposal by “closing other corporate tax loopholes.” In theory, that could mean a better tax code. But this Administration has a very confused understanding of tax policy, so it’s quite likely that they will raise taxes in a way that makes the overall tax code even worse. They’ve already done this in previous stimulus plans by increasing the tax bias against American companies competing in world markets, so there’s little reason to be optimistic now. And don’t forget that the President has not changed his mind about imposing higher income tax rates, higher capital gains tax rates, higher death tax rates, and higher dividend tax rates beginning next January.
All that we can say for sure is that the politicians in Washington are very nervous now that the midterm elections are just two months away. This means their normal tendencies to waste money will morph into a pathological form of profligacy.
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81 Comments
We ALL know the definition of insanity. It is so VERY APPARENT with this administrations new stimulus package. Maybe it will work THIS time…hahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahhahahahha. Crazy bastards !
Republicans have no ideas. The only thing they do is criticize the Presidents plan. In a couple of months you will no longer have Pelosi to kick around anymore. Should be very interesting. The Republican House is a failure before it begins
Yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…. Wrong again !
I had the (dis)pleasure of watching part of Obama’s Labor Day speech in Milwaukee. Just when I thought I couldn’t dislike this un-presidential president any more than I already do, he goes and gives another speech.
You are admitting we are going to win? SWEET !!!
I think there is another 100B on the table for immediate tax write down for business infrastructure spending, the point that needs to be made is corruption.
Shovel ready was a lie, come on pukes show some backbone and call it what it was. Why should we trust the same corrupt people that just stole 850B from us??
As the economy heads further into the abyss, Obama's newest czar says "Don't worry, get drunk." – SHOCKING story at:
http://spnheadlines.blogspot.com/2010/03/homeland...
Peace!
You notice Obama only speaks to unions? I guess its fitting he doesnt care about anyone else in America, an they bought an paid for him.
Obama is a one trick pony. Straight out of the playbook of economic infants.
Yeah, this stimulus is EXACTLY what we need now. Because the first was so effective. Is this stimulus going to create jobs that the first stimulus job creator was supposed to do? I am going out on a limb here… NO. Unemployment is up, more jobs are lost, people are discouraged. Look, I want nothing more than for this President to go build his library. I don't want him anywhere near the 2012 ballot but I do want something to work. If he kept his union tied hands off the economy, this country might have a chance.
Socialism is still enforced at gun point….>Why add more laws and tax codes why not go a simple plan, because then you would really know how much is being stole from the American people. Sales tax, payroll tax, Luxary tax, cigarette tax, gas tax, death tax, property tax, there are too many taxes how much of your money is going into the government coffers and not into your own pocket…..
The definition of insanity: To do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results!!!
It is not the job of the government to create jobs, wealth etc.!
You sure re one ignorant lib.
Historically proven, a government who DOES NOTHING is better than one that tries all forms of different meddling policies; all in the attempt (wishful thinking) to create an economic boom. All of Obama and the progressive Marxist colluders meddling have really done such a bang up job with the world’s largest economy. Nothing like warm weather shrinkage with the GDP now down to 1.6%. This is essentially a BIG ZERO!
Hell, even your marxist friends the communist Chinese figured this out by getting out of the way, lowering taxes, decreasing regulations and making specific provinces very, very business friendly. You would believe that your best friend Obama as Marxist in charge would see this and attempt to follow suit. Why is it that the Chinese marxists are so smart in growing their economic power using other people’s money without borrowing against their workers? Keynesian economics is a total failure independent of conservative, marxist, democrat, republican. IT WILL ALWAYS FAIL!!!
Talk about not learning how to destroy and transform a country properly…Obama clearly failed Marxist economics 101.
I know that in my state, road building funds go directly into the asphalt and concrete contractors pockets and then directly to the local democrat party campaigns. Enough borrowing money to repave perfectly good roads. Enough Keysian foolishness. We cannot afford to keep disproving Democrat fiscal theory. Enough!!!
Oh we have a lot of ideas alright….. of course if you don't know them it's because we're told to sit down and shut up. You can blame the lame stream media for that!
Obama is starting to remind me of that web site "There, I fixed it" which shows a whole bunch of "lame" remedies to structural or mechanical problems, where duct tape seems to be the popular choice– but in Obama's case, instead of duct tape, he's using a whole bunch of printed paper masquerading as US dollars………
Sure, same ole story, but here is the beginning of vilification. See how he is knocking republicans for stopping this bill.
I'm sorry, but don't the democrats still have both the senate and the House?
This is just a glimpse of what we will see when the republicans stop the madness. It will be obama, democrats and the media on a full frontal assault going after republicans. They better be prepared.
It's funny – given his behavior around unions it seems that President Obama understands the concept of "debt," but when it comes to our money there's some fine detail he's missing.
Change.
All this meant was for a new party to take over the white house and do the same thing the other party did and blame the other party for all the troubles. the repubs did the same thing when bush took over.
Spending billions is not new or change, it is simply a failed plan that will sell to an uninformed, paranoid public who choose to not understand history. It never works. but we'll do it again as obama cuddles up to his socialist constiuency again.
I'm sure we all remember this last shovel ready measures included in the spending:
Previous Stimulus waste:
* $5 million to create a geothermal energy system for a shopping mall in Tennessee. The mall is over half empty of tenants and has had falling shopper attendance for years *
* $1.57 million to Penn State University study fossils in Argentina *
* $100,000 to a puppet theater in Minnesota *
* $2 million to build a replica railroad tourist trap in Carson City, Nev. *
* A boat cruise company in Chicago got almost $1 million to “combat terrorism” *
* $500,000 went to Ariz. State Univ. to study ant genetics *
* Another $450,000 went to Uinv. of Arizona to study ants *
* Almost $400,000 went to Univ. of New York to pay students to drink beer and smoke marijuana for a study there *
* $219,000 to the Nat’l Institute of Health to study if young people “hook-up” after getting drunk *
* $210,000 to the Univ. of Hawaii to study bees *
* $700,000 to crab fishermen in Oregon to pay for lost crab pots *
* $5,000 a person tax rebate if you buy a new electric golf cart (Wall Street Journal)
* Up to $1 million went to prisoners in $250 stimulus checks (FoxNews)
* $54 mil to a New York Indian tribe to run its casino (New York Post)
* $1 billion for a power plant in Mattoon, Illinois that is based on speculative science and may not even work **
* $15 million to back-road bridges that get little traffic in Wisconsin **
* $800,000 for a practically unused airport in Pennsylvania **
* $3.4 million for an animal walk way under a road in Florida **
* $1.15 million to install a guard rail for a lake that doesn’t even exist in Oklahoma **
* $10 million to renovate a rail station that has stood unused for a decade **
* $578,000 to battle homelessness in Union, New York even though the town says they have no homeless people there **
* $233,000 to the Univ. of Calif. to study why Africans vote… in Africa ***
* $2 million to build a new fire house in a Nevada town that has no firemen ***
* North Carolina schools got $4.4 million for literacy and math coaches… to teach their teachers! ***
* $54 million for a railroad project in Napa Valley went to a minority-owned company that then hired a local construction company for half the price, pocketing the rest ***
* A California company was given $15 million in stimulus money to monitor water quality in a stream it was under indictment for polluting previously***
LJ
Please no more Huff Post talking points. The Republicans have a bunch of ideas.
1. When you find yourself at the bottom of a deep hole – stop digging.
2. Less goverment, less goverment cheese.
3. Repeal and defund the massive socialist take over attempted in the last 4 years.
4. Really drain the swamp and send the criminals packing.
You have just confirmed what we conservatives have been saying all along. Progressive liberals are deaf. There have been tried and true suggestions and measures put before the progressive controlled Congress and to no avail. Progressive like yourself are completely tone deaf and wrapped so tightly in your ideology that you do not know reality when you are standing in it.
Please continue the diatribes, protests, and racist rants because the sane people in this country are seeing exactly who is teaching their children (wrongly), shamelessly indenturing the feeble, and subverting the greatest country to ever grace this planet. Time to get back underneath the rock you crawled out of or get squashed by real patriots.
Clearly the presidential blowhard is campaigning still. He is campaigning to spend more money from the fictional money tree. If there was no better reason to get these progressive loons out of Congress it is that they can not understand fiscal responsibility. They are either the dumbest people on the planet or truly wish to destroy this country. The fact that they keep going amidst so much resistance by patriotic conservatives tells me, it is intentional.
Related Onion-style parody: Stimulus Funds to Create Interstate Trough System http://optoons.blogspot.com/2010/07/stimulus-fund...
This guy's not insane………he's evil, and wants our economy to collapse…
So, they're going to spend more taxpayer money on road and bridge projects, which, if they create jobs, only create jobs for the duration of the project…. then they're gone again……
But they're going to fund it by adding another tax to energy (oil) companies.
Those tax increases will roll down to the consumer, resulting in higher gas prices, among other things…
So people will do less driving, because the cost of fuel has risen.
In effect, they're going to build roads by making it harder for people to afford to use them.
This is liberal thinking at it's best (worst).
Which web site did you cut and paste this from?
I cannot believe that there is no national add campaign using that bridge to nowhere, they should be selling Tea Shirts with Funded but the American Recovery Act and a picture of that bridge.
I swear Republicans seem like they don't want to win and I think the maybe to stupid to win.
Another point that pisses me off, Olinsky keeps saying that Rs are friends to big business–big businesses are the JOB CREATORS and Rs should be pointing that out…we are job friendly NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!
They could just run adds throwing money, wrapped in rubber bands like crooks would do, off the end of that bridge and a scroll ticking items off of your list.
UMMMM,more tax dollars for road improvements? Has anyone ever checked on where the biggest companys that do road construction are located? I'm in Mo and all the companies I see doing major road construction have IL addresses.Whats up whit that! We need to see what companies are going to get contracts before any bill gets passed,we need to ask what companies will benefit the most from this.
I believe he only speaks to unions because they are the only ones that will provide enough of a crowd for his speach (paid and bussed in crowd but still more than 20 people) they don't want to have a publcised rally or speach featuring him and then only 100 people show up.
LJ, in case you missed it, the Dems have no ideas either. All they are doing is just throwing more and more of our money at the problem with no actual ideas to fix it.
It has been said many times here in order to fix the economy, the only question is if anyone in office will be smart enough to do it. The solution is cutting all taxes, cutting spending, drop unneeded regulation, drop the worthless agnentcies, and get rid of the unions.
Increasing taxes so you can increase spending 18 months down the line is not a stimulus – it is an increase in spending, period the end. The $50 billion "infrastructure bill" is a thinly disguised union payout just like the other Stimulus was a union payout. Anyone who believes this is about anything else is a real fool. On top of that, we once again have the White House using phony math to promote the policy. Where did they get 150,000 miles of new paving from? Based upon my experience with financing real estate development, I would wager there's some b.s. in those numbers.
The research and development tax credit is the General Electric, Microsoft, Apple and other liberal supporters giveaway – this doesn't spur capital investment. If you want to spur capital investment, then stimulate it. How do you stimulate capital investment? Make it more attractive to put capital at risk right now by reducing or eliminating the taxes due on the profits these investments would realize (called capital gains). Mr. Obama & Company don't want to spread around the benefits to their enemies. This is just like the GM bailout deal where the White House decided which dealerships would stay open based upon whether or not the dealership was located in a Democratic district or not.
infrastructure? i thought that was covered under the first great rape of the taxpayer! i don't see the small biz-man in here, all i see is more paybacks to the unions! president "snoopy" is trying to pull another union payoff scheme! has anyone notified PETA about obumma mistreating dogs!? comparing himself to a dog is grossly unfair to our canine friends! dogs deserve our affection; obumma does no!.
Einstein said it all: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
It's either those nitwits are doing it intentionally or they're proving one of my dad's favorite phrases: "You can't fix stupid."
On ABC this morning they had a 15 minute segment on the Obumbles awful approval rating.
Even the lame stream media acknowledges that this administration is a failure.
November can't come fast enough.
All evidence points to intentional. I find it hard to believe that anyone can be that stupid and manage to remember that eating is essential to live.
You'd be amazed at the level of stupid people are capable of and still be able to breathe and eat. I had a teacher who I had to coach through saving a document in Word every time she wanted to save. Didn't matter if we'd done it five days ago or five minutes ago.
The Obama Team is determined to convert the world's greatest Country into terrorizing communism, as fast as they can!
Delete socialist Dems. Replace 'quid pro quo' Repubs. Then institute TERM LIMITS to prevent Career corrupt politicians!
In a way, its more like an Obama ego tour. To where he goes to the people who still support him, and brag about his so called success. Yet, he ignores the rest of America who are still loosing jobs and being forced to cut back more and more.
In short, Obama is the Union President not the American President.
Not only does redistribution not work, it makes things far, far worse, as we have seen over the last year. This is because, instead of the free market picking the best (i.e., most efficient) producer or service provider and thereby funneling money in that direction, the government, even if not corrupt, can't because it is never as nimble as the free market. The government is inefficient, even more so when it sees a wad of cash to give to cronies who will vote the way it wants.
No doubt there are stupid people in office, but all this wasteful spending and bad regulations is to intentionally crash the system. That is why they are just spending more and more and not letting anyone get in the way. It all goes back to Clowered & Pivon.
And she was a teacher? I guess the fundamentals of instruction were lost during the learning process. LOL
Straight from the the response cards issued at Center for American Progress.
That don't surprise me, look at who blahblah was before he stole office. And you just can't be more stupid than that…..can you?
Yeah, they were no doubt found in those care packages seiu passes out to every new recruit they find sitting on the park benches with booze bottles in hand.
Once a communist organizer always a community organizer I recon. We really can't tell if he has a brain or not through all that hay. Chris Mathews says he is smart though so he must be. Oh wait, Mathews is an idiot so even an earthworm is smart to him.
Ahhh (hic) ahhh, poor me another glass of stupid please (hic). I am too (hic) sober to deal with reality.
What happened to the last 250+ BILLION dept of trans spending bill? It was loaded with ear-marks !!!
My God and they say the right has no new ideas !!! I truly believe they have no clue where this money comes from ….
That is the big one there, TERM LIMITS.
Without term limits, we will end up with more corrupt carreer politicians we have now. Politics in of itself should never be a carreer. Although as an unseen upside to this, it will cut power to special interest and unions to as their politician will not be in office long enough to do much in favor of them.
The collapse of the system is his job number one…….
I'm spammin this sucker everywhere I can! OMG…..
THE BEST PEP TALK EVER!!!
==========================
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrATS4mthX4
Bingo! Originally if you were a consciencious citizen, you served a term in public office to keep America safe, and prosperous. As you said, there was no time for special interests to corrupt with payola.
- We need to return to those times, especially with the marxists in the W.H. now, and their deals with Unions, and Dictators around the world!
I vacillate between thinking Obama is an idiot and an evil genius. I know what you're saying and it's scary as hell.
God bless you Texans!
Thanks TS, that was awesome.
Exactly RIGHT! Return to Free Markets, and free enterprise,and exorcise all socialists and keep track of them for the next 50 years. They, and their spawn will return.
I think that every High School and College in America should have a Course in the values of Free Enterprise, and Free Markets, and how they made America great!
We did 50 years ago.
If you're all in with Obama's agenda you need more cash and know just who to get it from before they are toast, the "dem" controlled congress.
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/139/903/WND_Says_A...
The Republicans are going to have to block this nonsense in the coming session,…………
and the Obama / MSM spin will make them out to be the bad guys,…….
this ploy may save a few congressional seats in the dumbo states (IL being one of them) and maybe,……..
be enough to hold on to the House.
OK Republicans,……….. the ball is going to be in your court
I know he's evil…I just believe that evil = insane…
Is it working? If College Prof's are mostly Libs, who is teaching that? and why are the college kids graduating as socialists?
Do you think the answer is in the screening of teachers? Obama Zombies abound in college graduates.
Could it be naive Idealism? and shouldn't that be balanced with reality? They seem to vote their freedoms away, as in voting for socialists nd the Unions that back them.
"The measures include the “establishment of an Infrastructure Bank to leverage federal dollars and focus on investments of national and regional significance"
Why does this make the blood drain out of my head? Oh …….the Dem coffers need more moolah from the taxpayers…….better set up a bank to handle it all.
One must never equate evil with insanity. Good people can be insane, but evil should never be given an insanity defense………it must be defended against……
all excellent questions there pnipni,………..
The way I see it is that the conservative mentality, which was one wanting to be left alone,…….
is going to have to change to one where by "reality" thinking people,………
are going to have to get involved in all our institutions,……….
just like the libs have been doing so for the past generation.
The result will hopefully be a conservative social worker that espouses individualism,…………….
instead of providing instruction on how to collect food stamps.
Wasn't the initial stimulus to be used to in part to rebuild the infastructure of America? BTW, why should railroads be included? I understood that they were part and parcel of the private sector, except for AMTRAK.
Just another pie in the sky scam to buy votes in Nov. Interesting part is that the funding does not magically appear until sometime in late 2011 or 2012 – long after the fall elections. Interesting. Tell the voter anything to get the vote, and then go too sad, so bad after progressive seats are retained. I do suspect that, at this late date, the voter will not be bamboozled by the flim flam man and his trolls.
If we dig deeply enough, we can dig allll the way to China.
No kids, you can't.
It is getting harder and harder for him to find an AstroTurf audience or an audience that will show up and not BOO
I like that. I guess it helps to have the voice of reason bmbodied in the Tea Party.
Unworthy of reply…just a thumbs down.
The poser has taught me that some people should stay in school…forever.
Standard lib reply.
Obama and the libs have been sooo original in their ideas; identify and issue, think problem solving……..bright idea!! spend money on unions, pork, and not be able to account for billions of it. Tax the 'rich', penalize productivity and ingenuity in the name of progressivism (since the lazy teet suckers know it's easier to take from those who do and call them evil then it is to go out and work) tax the middle class because they are all working to pay the damn bill for your spending spree, and aren't politically conncected to the 'poor' people like Goerge Soros, John Kerry, etc.
the only idea the dems have is spend, print, spend, print, spend, print, spend, tax, print spend…even when no evidence exists that it works.
Not stupid?? One word from the Constitutional scholar, Dommander in Chief: "corpse-man"
No matter what the problem is, the solution is always the same – huge spending, complex rules and more power to Washington.
There are plenty of ways to stimulate the US economy that don't cost a dime – simplify the tax return, repeal Sarbanes Oxley, Patriot Act etc.
When is this government going to do something other than tax and spend?
Here is the plan Democrats/Progressives say the Republicans do not have.
http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/
“Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity”
I have to weigh in here and say beware a knee-jerk opposition to anything the president proposes. The R&D tax credit, for example, is not a bad idea if implemented properly.
Even the infrastructure spending could provide a short-term boost, again if done correctly. It's true that the last one didn't do a single thing, but there was a specific reason for that – the union set-asides it contained essentially excluded the entire American workforce from any of the benefits of the spending in favor of union members.
Now, I agree that there is virtually no chance of the president not making the same mistake. But his proposals so far have been to spend money on infrastructure to stimulate jobs, which is a good idea. If and when he reverses himself and turns it into an initiative to spend money on union patronage with no chance of stimulating jobs, then we criticize it for what it is.
I imagine many Republicans are thinking of his immigration speech, where he proposed doing exactly what Republicans have been pushing for for years – enhanced border security, and a path to citizenship for those already here that involves as a prerequisite satisfying any criminal sanctions and then going home and starting the immigration process from the beginning, behind those who have been waiting to do it legally. This is what we on the right have always wanted, it's what the president said in his speech he wanted, and he got praise from conservatives for it.
I'll admit that I, like everyone else, felt "taken" when he reversed himself, sued Arizona for pursuing his stated policy, and began maneuvering to effectively offer amnesty by declining to follow existing law. And it irritated me that our opposition to the president's adoption of the opposite of what he said he favored was portrayed as a flip-flop on my part rather than his.
Nevertheless, being consistent is the right thing to do. If the president proposes something that's a good idea, which I think he did in this case, I'm willing to get behind it. If (when?) it morphs into something sinister or ill-advised (like if the infrastructure spending gets union set-asides, or the investment credit is limited to politically favored industries, technologies, or companies), then I'll criticize.
Tony, have you considered that you may be being naive when you view the President as having, "… reversed himself..", "… made the mistake.." or had his proposal "…morph into somethng..". He's a liar – a blatant, bold-faced liar, and a damned good one. Even the proposed R&D tax credit, when you look into what a small business has to do to take advantage of it, is just another fine sounding lie. Wise up, Tony. Be skeptical and do your research before you're tempted to take anything he puts on the table as positive. His continuing tyrannical reign is in jeapordy now, and he knows it. He'll promise anything he thinks might save his sorry butt.
I think you may be misreading me. You say the president is a liar. I said that he has "reversed himself" on EG immigration. Both mean the same thing. I did not suggest that he somehow meant what he said on immigration and then changed his mind. I said that he reversed himself – IE he said one thing, but meant (and ultimately did) another – he lied, and that lie manifested itself in a reversal of his stated public position.
I also did not mean to imply that his "mistakes" have been unintentional, or that his proposals have "morphed" on their own against his will. These are all just examples of him lying and pursuing flawed policy – in each case, as far as I can tell, quite intentionally.
Like I said, I'm not naive. I don't believe for a second that the infrastructure spending is going to be as he has described it (IE without union set-asides), or that the tax credit isn't going to be crippled with caveats informed by poor policy.
But that is the lure he uses to get the uninformed on his side. He says he wants to invest in infrastructure, makes a perfectly reasonable proposal to use some taxpayer dollars to keep people employed and get something worthwhile for the taxpayer out of the deal. It would have helped the economy if the original stimulus bill had taken this form. What he hopes to do is to get his political opponents to oppose the reasonable sounding version of what he SAYS he wants to do, in order to isolate us from the less informed or more trusting. It's a trap, and we walk into it time after time.
My point is that when he (dishonestly) proposes something easily recognizable as good, which he has done in this and other cases (the broad proposals that he's discusses publicly, without the fatal flaws that will invariably be added later) we should cheer them. Be enthusiastic and specific about what we like and why we like it. It gives us the standing to hold him to what he originally promised – an infrastructure bill with no union set-asides; a R&D tax credit with no carve-outs for favored industries – as well as more credibility when the enacting legislation must eventually be opposed for the reasons I outlined above. By publicly supporting the proposals in their popular form, we then get to explain our opposition to legislation by illustrating how it differs from what was initially proposed – from what the president said that we and the American people liked:
"We continue to support the president's proposed $50B in infrastructure spending to help boost jobs and get the taxpayer a benefit in return. We call on the president and his party, who control all branches of government, to support our efforts to enact legislation that will realize his stated goals, rather than the current form of the legislation which due to influence of union special-interests excludes most Americans from being allowed to work on the projects and does not result in any actual benefit to taxpayers".
I think we're largely on the same page. I'm not saying we should take what he says at face value, or assume he means well. I am saying we should not let him take control of the debate by looking like the only one who wants good things for America. Make it clear that we want what he says that he wants, and then allow the American people to join us in our outrage when what he tries to do is diametrically opposite of what he said he wanted.
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