I had my antennae up on this and he was actually pretty good. The stage was set for a perfect replay of 1992 when Clinton
discovered after the election that the deficit was worse than he thought, therefore . . . and you know the rest. Obama pointed out in an interview that the money was not all going out in one year and that it was a gross, not net outlay, since the crap they buy will be resold for something. He might have also said that in the case of health care reform, part of the point is reducing the rate of growth of spending, so it makes no sense to postpone it to reduce outlays, even though it entails more spending up front. The debt-GDP ratio has been much higher in the recent past, with no visible ill effects for the economy, so a one time bump up, even though it's not a small bump, should not be a problem. Naturally the deficit fiends are using this as a great opportunity to tee off on Social Security and Medicare, as many have noted. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Louis Proyect > Sent: 09/25/08 09:57 am > To: PEN-L list > Subject: [Pen-l] Obama: bailout will force social spending cutbacks > > http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0a4fefee-89d2-11dd-8371-0000779fd18c.html > > Obama concedes delay in plans > By Andrew Ward in Detroit and Daniel Dombey in Washington > > Barack Obama acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the > financial crisis could force him to rein in his ambitious spending plans > as the proposed $700bn bail-out of Wall Street threatens to plunge the > government deeper into debt. > > The Democratic presidential candidate hoped that much of the public > money committed to the financial sector would be recovered, but said it > was likely some of his spending plans would be delayed. > > "Does that mean I can do everything that I've called for in this > campaign right away? Probably not," he told NBC's Today programme. "I > think we're going to have to phase it in." > > His remarks reflected a growing realisation that the financial crisis - > and the government's costly resp-onse to it - had transformed the fiscal > landscape for the next president and thrown both candidates' economic > programmes into doubt. > > The US was facing a record $480bn (€327bn, £259bn) budget deficit next > year even before recent events, and the proposed bail-out threatens to > push it to more than $1,000bn. > > Both candidates would be constrained by the crisis. Mr Obama wants to > commit an additional $130bn a year to an array of new federal programmes > while cutting taxes on the middle classes by $80bn. The shopping list > includes $65bn on healthcare, $18bn on education and $15bn on green > energy initiatives. > > John McCain, his Republican opponent, plans a sharp cut in corporate > taxes that could reduce federal revenues by up to $300bn a year. > > In later comments at an event in Florida, the Democratic nominee > insisted that "a lot" of his spending plans would be financed by changes > to the budget elsewhere, arguing that, in times of economic difficulty, > healthcare improvements and a middle class tax cut were more important > than ever. > > But he added: "It would be irresponsible of me to say I am not going to > take into account what things look like should I take office", > highlighting uncertainty over whether the US economy would recover or > "slide deeper into recession". > > Mr Obama plans to help fund his proposals by raising taxes on people > earning more than $250,000 but he acknowledged this month that rate > increases might have to wait until the economy had stabilised. > > He said it was still unclear how much the bail-out would cost taxpayers > and what its impact would be on the budget. > > "Although we are potentially providing $700bn in available money to the > Treasury, we don't anticipate that all that money gets spent right away > and we don't anticipate that all that money is lost. How we're going to > structure that in budget terms still has to be decided," he said. > > Opinion polls have so far shown Mr Obama benefiting from the crisis by > refocusing attention on the struggling economy and failures of the > Republican administration. > > Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
