"Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus" from AP reports that President-elect Barack Obama has warned of dire consequences if his stimulus package isn't adopted, pronto.
This has the trappings of both President Bush's mushroom cloud scenario before the Iraq war and the hustle that taxpayers got before the TARP was rushed into law with few provisos attached in so far as regulations and limits.
For the taxpayers who have lived within their means, worked hard - and seen Obama and his economic advisers (Robert Rubin, Larry Summers - as well as Barney Frank and Chris Dodd) who have had their fingerprints all over the causes of the economic debacle, this appears to be the latest hustle.
In addition, if the stimulus doesn't work, it will be conveniently blamed on anyone else - the GOP, not including enough in the package, etc. - to ensure that Obama will not get blamed. Seeing how Obama has had zero experience in any sort of budgeting of this sort - or background, it causes pause.
"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said in a speech set to be delivered at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., outside Washington. Excerpts from his prepared text were released in advance by his transition team.
"A bad situation could become dramatically worse," he added, painting a dire picture - including double-digit unemployment and $1 trillion in lost economic activity - that recalled the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Obama on CNBC With John Harwood:
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They're like sleazy salesmen, trying to scare us into buying right now, before we can think about it or change our mindd. What scares me about the stimulus is if it doesn't work and we owe all that money, assuming we can even borrow it in the first place.
Posted by: Larry | January 08, 2009 at 04:36 AM