Just a few comments on President Obama’s press conference tonight, it will be quick because I’ve got a lot to study. I’ve got the whole thing posted at the end of this article but I wanted to highlight this clip where he addresses issues surrounding his proposed budget. Its short, and if you’re concerned at all about the 3.6 trillion budget the administration recently proposed its a good one to watch.
I’m probably going to do a larger post about the budget at a later date but I think he does a great job of hitting some of the common concerns head on. One thing he talks about is that, like with the stimulus plan and the bank bailout, we have to remember that it’s not a choice between increasing the deficit and not increasing the deficit! The deficit will increase over the next several years. Its a matter of choosing the path that will increase it the least. And we also have to remember that a slow-growing, or shrinking, economy reduces government inflows and increases our deficit significantly. The idea is to boost spending in ways that will stimulate the economy such that it offsets the costs of that spending.
So I don’t think we can just say, “why don’t we spend less to decrease the deficit?” Cutting valuable spending will likely Continue reading
Okay well I know the stimulus bill is passed and settled now so this will likely be my last post on the subject. But I’ve had several questions recently about whether or not there’s any truth to accusations of pork in the stimulus and while I’ve mentioned some stimulus myths in a previous post (see “ACORN, Fieldmice, Banning Prayer, Socialized Medicine and other Stimulus Fear-Mongering“) and I’ve talked a little bit about pork in some of my previous posts, I haven’t yet focused on it specifically. So with this post I intend to answer this question to the best of my ability: “Does the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka. The Stimulus Bill) contain pork-barrel spending?” Continue reading
I think this video does a fantastic job of explaining the credit crisis in simple terms. It doesn’t really discuss some of the newer developments, and it certainly over-simplifies some of the issues at points along the line. But it explains the events that initially got us into this mess about as clearly and succinctly as they can be explained. If you’re new to the economics of the credit crisis, you may still be a little shaky after a single viewing, but you’ll certainly understand things much better. And even if you consider yourself a financial pro, you’ll likely have a clearer understanding of how the various problems facing banks, lenders, investors, and homeowners are connected after watching this. It’s 11 minutes long but its definitely worth it. And don’t forget to share your thoughts about it in the comments!
Well I’m a little late to the game on this one but for those of you who missed it, here’s Obama’s speech to the joint session of congress delivered tuesday night. It was a great speech, which I thought was surprisingly informative, with a fair amount of detail. He struck a more hopeful tone than he has in the past, which is probably what we need, and what we are ready for. I was surprised at how many of his statements brought the Republican legislators in the room to their feet. Of course its in the bizarre format of all Presidential speeches to congress, where everyone claps after every other sentence. If you don’t want to deal with all of that then you can just read the transcript here.
One thing that struck me during this talk, but which I’d like to develop further in the future, is how similar all of our values are in America. I think, as much as political pundits like to portray political differences as a war of values, in most cases we all have very similar basic values and goals, just different ideas about how to go about achieving those things. Obama touched on values a lot in this speech and when he was talking about those things was there really much there for any of us to disagree with? If there are some conservatives in the audience maybe they can let us know in the comments.
To continue the themes of my post earlier today, if you want to read the stimulus bill for yourself, the Senate compromise version can be found here: Senate Stimulus Bill. If you right click on the link you can choose to download it to your computer for easier reading. Its 778 pages. But its 778 pages of double spaced, 16 point text that only takes up the middle third of the page. So it reads much more quickly than one would expect. Its brought to you via Readthestimulus.org. And you can go there to find previous versions of the bill. The new house and senate compromise version should be available soon.
Once again, if you can find some kind of pet project hidden in it then by all means notify news agencies because you’ll have some pretty exclusive information. For all the talk of the “bloated, pork-filled stimulus” I haven’t been able to find anything yet.
UPDATE: See the way that the spending in the final bill breaks down through this intuitive little tool: CNN Stimulus Spending Chart
I thought these seven minutes were some of the most important of Obama’s speech and they can serve here as a springboard for discussing two important topics. The first is the issue of partisanship. I have been thoroughly impressed with Obama’s calm demeanor and mature perspective in regards to bipartisanship. He has reached out across the aisle in an unprecedented way and he has been repeatedly slapped in the face by congressional republicans. Yet he doesn’t turn on them, he doesn’t denounce them and give up, he talks about how his efforts are a long-term investment. And he says he’s going to continue reaching across the aisle because its going to take a long-term investment to change the culture of washington. That demonstrates humility and maturity that we have long expected of our neighbors and friends but which we, for some reason, have not expected of our politicians for a long time.
He could easily use recent events to score political points against republicans, blaming the lack of bipartisanship on them, especially in light of all the political points they’ve been scoring on him lately. But I like to think that he has more confidence in the American people. He knows we can look at an issue rationally and won’t be deceived by strategist commentaries and media blowhards. He trusts that we can judge a situation based on facts and long-term results and not on quotes and smears. In short, he’s taking the high road, the same high road he stuck to during his campaign and that goes a long way in my book.
The second issue he talks about is pork. I think its hilarious how conservative pundits have been able to redefine the word pork so that they can label this stimulus bill as such. Or it would be hilarious if… Continue reading
Well I might as well get started. On this blog I’m planning on spending a fair amount of time covering principles rather than current events, but with all that’s happening now with the stimulus, and with us being at the beginning of one of the greatest economic crisis in American history, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about it a bit. Just in case you missed it, these are the prepared remarks from President Obama’s news conference a few days ago. Its via Hulu so you may have to watch a commercial before it starts. If you haven’t watched it yet I suggest you do so. In fact its probably a good idea to watch the rest of his remarks as well. Which can also be found on Hulu.
I thought he did a good job explaining some of the rationale behind the plan and driving home some of the most important points. Overall I just thought it was great to have a president who was willing to admit that the plan wasn’t perfect and that things may not turn out the way they hope. His candor was really refreshing. And he took the time to explain things to the American people. He didn’t just say “trust me”, he didn’t just spew slogans and talking points, he tried to explain the plan the way a friend would try to explain it to you. Once again, very refreshing.
Still the stimulus plan is complex, and he was only able to address a few of the issues surrounding the bill. Hopefully I’ll be able to delve into some of them a little more deeply tomorrow.
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Quotes
"We do not need to judge nearly so much as we think we do. This is the age of snap judgments. … [We need] the courage to say, ‘I don’t know. I am waiting further evidence. I must hear both sides of the question.’ It is this suspended judgment that is the supreme form of charity. Someone has said that you cannot slice cheese so fine that it doesn’t have two sides."
-Dallin H. Oaks
"It is better to debate a question without settling it, than to settle a question without debating it...The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress."
-Joseph Joubert
"The more you know, the more you realise how much you don’t know — the less you know, the more you think you know."
-David Freeman
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
