No one can accuse President-elect Obama of sugarcoating the truth.
He hasn't officially taken office yet and is already predicting our country's fiscal woes could last for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits.
That is why anyone who wants to see this country get economically healthy again should cheer the Obama American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that he detailed in his weekly message to the nation this week.
Under the plan, Obama projects that nation will save or create upwards of four million jobs. The number sounds unrealistic at first blush but when one realizes the country lost more than 500,000 last month alone, Obama's goal for job creation seems modest and reachable.
Nearly a half million jobs will be created by investing in clean energy, according to the plan, by modernizing most of the federal buildings and improving energy efficiency of two million American homes. The jobs will come from building solar panels, wind turbines, fuel efficient cars and other energy saving technologies.
Whether there is a market for all of these devices is in question among economists. That is why this investment with take massive amounts of cash from the federal government to finance the plan.
Now we all have seen this movie before.
The billions of dollars spent will kick-start the economy for a while and may even launch a sustained economic turnaround that is so badly needed. But two or three years from now, when the bills start rolling in for the billion dollar-plus blank checks we will be writing now, the national deficit will skyrocket.
Obama critics will scream that our national security is being put at risk by the growing debt. Others will say we are mortgaging our children's financial futures saddling them with massive bills.
That may all be true but at this point, we as a nation have no choice. Obama is right to put his emphasis on digging the country out of its fiscal crisis now. All we can hope is that waste and fraud, the two-headed monster that often accompanies massive spending progams, is held in check.
The tagline of a 1970's television commercial boils down our predicament better than any government report. A cranky old mechanic looks at a beleaguered car owner and issues an ominous warning "You can pay me now or pay me later."
_________________
Paul Shepard blogs the Democrat side of politics for BlackVoices. He has been a journalist for 16 years; on the national urban/minority affairs beat for The Cleveland Plain Dealer and for The AP in Washington, D.C. He now runs his own public affairs firm Shepard Strategic Communications.
Comments: (2)
Add a comment
By: Jessie on 1/12/2009 2:48PM
LOLOL Who wrote this? Are they on drugs? "Obama projects that nation will save or create upwards of four million jobs. The number sounds unrealistic at first blush but when one realizes the country lost more than 500,000 last month alone, Obama's goal for job creation seems modest and reachable" So if the number of jobs is huge it's more reachable and modest?????? HUH?
"Whether there is a market for all of these devices is in question among economists. That is why this investment with take massive amounts of cash from the federal government to finance the plan." So if the huge masses of unemployed and the people that are just getting by do not want these things amd they're sitting around collecting dust, that's the reason it takes so much money to finance the plan??? HUH??????? Who wrote this article? A 2nd grader?
"But two or three years from now, when the bills start rolling in for the billion dollar-plus blank checks we will be writing now, the national deficit will skyrocket." What??? When the government spends money at that moment it becomes part of the national DEBT if there are no funds in the coffers to pay for it and it is paid for with borrowed money. The national DEBT is an ongoing accumulation of borrowed money and invested money for US bonds over the years that is still owed much like a mortgage. It is part of the DEFICIT if it pushes the annual debts above the annual federal tax revenues. There's no 2 or 3 year waiting period. This is laughable.
The entire premise is laughable. Obama promised he would bring our jobs back and usually made mention of NAFTA and outsourcing. Most knew that wasn't going to happen but some bought into it. Now here's Obama's "pig wearing lipstick". No, like so many of Obama's broken promises, the jobs aren't coming back. Somehow a few new green production factories are going to poof into existance (probably take 2 years) and hire a whole lot of folks with no training or experience in the field (add another year) and sell products to someone? Well maybe they will sell some to the government so they can upgrade their buildings. Be kind of interesting for Obama's team to say exactly what these fantasy products are and what they will provide. Maybe it's like that IBM commercial where little trees and birds pop out of our computers?
Mr. Shepard, This is a poor excuse for an article. I give it an F.
Reply to this Comment | Report This
By: Rene on 1/13/2009 5:25PM
As the writer said, "we don't have a choice" and everyone who wants to critize President Elect Obama's ideals are not giving any other solutions on the issues you just want to complain and be a part of the problem not the solution. Jessie maybe you need to come up with a better plan.......but you can't so shut up and let Obama get in office and find out what he can do. At this point we don't need ney sayers who's opinions are worthless.
Reply to this Comment | Report This