Life In Hooverville - "Unforced Error" [View All]

[phantom power]

Definitely a case for "read the whole thing."

I remember the week after Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address, I had a few conversations with Obama Senior Administration Officials (and not the ones that you are thinking of either).

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As I recall, I said back then:

1. There was absolutely no reason to start deficit reduction until the unemployment rate fell below 7.5% or until interest rates started to spike. To say that deficit reduction would start "next year" rather than "when the Lesser Depression is over" was an unforced error.

2. To appoint as co-chair of your deficit commission a long-term budget arsonist like Alan Simpson--who never in his entire legislative career found a budget-busting Republican measure he could vote against or a deficit-reducting Democratic measure he could vote for--was an unforced error.

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5. For Obama to say that he is going to "freeze government spending" (which is $3.8 trillion/year) when what he means is to freeze non-security discretionary spending (which is $500 billion/year) is for Obama to simply tell a lie. The President should not lie in his State of the Union address. That was another unforced error.

6. If the President is saying that we need to shrink spending, what are we going to do if the recovery is not rapid or is not sustained? Obama has just thrown away a lot of his ability to get more stimulus through the Congress by calling for austerity, and in a year or two the country may well need him to have that ability. That was another unforced error.

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http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/09/life-in-hooverville.html