Legal Commentary

President-Elect Obama On The Stimulus, January 7, 2009

By Big Tent Democrat

Time magazine's false report that Congressional liberal lions called the shots on the stimulus is belied by this January 7, 2009 CNBC interview with then President-elect Obama:

[JOHN] HARWOOD: Tomorrow you're going to give a speech and talk about your economic stimulus package. [. . .] It looks like it's going to be at the high end of your range, around $775 billion.

Pres.-elect OBAMA: That's correct.

HARWOOD: If it's correct that, as your aides have said, the danger is doing too little rather than doing too much [. . .] why stop at $775 billion? Why not go to the $1.2 trillion that some economists have recommended? Is that because you think that the political figure of a trillion dollars is too politically charged to get over? Is it because you think more spending would be pork rather than stimulus? Or do you think you've figured out exactly the right amount of stimulus that's needed?

Pres.-elect OBAMA: [. . .] We've seen ranges from 800 to 1.3 trillion and our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we'll see how it develops. [. . . MORE . . .]

HARWOOD: It's going to get bigger.

Pres.-elect OBAMA: Well, we don't know yet. But what we are concerned about is making sure that the money is spent wisely, that there's oversight, that there's transparency. We are going to use this money to temporarily boost the economy, to create or save three million jobs, but also to put some down payments on things that we should've been doing over the last several decades that can help create a more competitive US economy. Examples: making sure that we are doubling alternative energy, and creating much more efficiency in our buildings and in our transportation systems, making sure that we are reducing the cost of health care using health information technologies, building up world class schools so that our children are benefiting and can compete in the global economy. So what we want to do is make sure that any money we're spending is, number one, creating jobs, stabilizing the economy, but also is being used prudently so that when we come out of the current stretch that we're in, we're going to see a stronger economy, a better economy, a more efficient economy.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 02, 2010 (boomark / email).