When Even the Lies Aren’t Enough
Jake Tapper would appear to be the only member of the White House press corps with balls (Helen Thomas excepted).
But I wouldn’t buy any green bananas, Jake.
Tapper, in contrast, referenced a new administration report on the stimulus entitled “100 Days, 100 Projects” and wondered, “But, how much of this is real? And how much is hype?” He asserted, “Critics have long said the administration overstates the impact of the stimulus.” After playing a clip of Obama claiming 150,000 jobs have been created by the stimulus bill, Tapper called that “a number based on theory, not fact.” University of Maryland economist Peter Morici appeared briefly to point out, “It’s simply an implausible statement to say that some 150,000 jobs were created by direct spending, indirect spending and so forth.”
The ABC correspondent noted the government report claims $27 billion was used for “green improvement” to public housing in Washington D.C. Tapper dismissed, “But, that’s not true. The stimulus paid for only two of [seven items listed in the report]. The other five were installed before the stimulus bill was even introduced in Congress.” He went on to point out that the $27 billion was the total the D.C. Housing Authority is getting. Only $44,000 came from stimulus money.
Finally, Tapper closed his piece by explaining that the White House, in its first quarterly report, stated $46 billion of the stimulus had been spent. The journalist noted, “They had to revise that figure. It’s now $36 billion, which means that less than five percent of the stimulus has gone out the door.”
But that’s very small potatoes indeed compared to this glum news:
The experience of being choked to death can concentrate a person’s attention. When the chokehold is removed, a feeling of relief, perhaps even of exhilaration, is to be expected.
But allowing a person to breathe may not be enough to restore him to health.
In that regard, 2009 is starting to feel a little like 1980.
The argument is too well-made and too involved to excerpt, but here’s the conclusion:
In baseball terms, the financial system had a good crop of minor leaguers available when the big league stars went onto the disabled list in the 1980s. Now the minor leaguers are also battered and bruised.
Bailouts and government spending do appear to have warded off Great Depression II, but the current government-supported financial system may not be enough to do much more than keep the economy breathing. In the words of Mr. Kaufman, whose prescient warnings of credit market excesses in recent years were largely ignored by Wall Street, “we do not have the financial firing power to lift this economy in any meaningful way.”
If he is right, the end of the current recession is unlikely to produce much of a recovery.
That shouldn’t be a problem for this crowd in the White House. If anyone can spin bust into boom, they can.