Friday, November 28, 2008
Editorial: Stimulus must be an investment
Obama's stimulus plan appears to focus on investments for the future. That's good, because future generations will get the bill.
From the RoundTable blog
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Some wondered whether President-elect Obama would be ready to lead from Day One. Ironically, circumstances have forced him to step up much sooner.
As economic turmoil continues to roil the nation and the world, it has become clear that the times are too tumultuous to allow President Bush's lame-duck term to play out in the usual fashion.
Obama has stressed repeatedly that the United States has only one president at a time, but in the past week he seems to have realized that, while he won't take office until Jan. 20, he will need to build plenty of forward momentum before then, not only to hit the ground running but to provide some much-needed reassurance to the economy now.
The announcement that Obama wants to have a massive stimulus package, one "big enough to meet the challenges we face," ready to sign practically the day he takes office may provide some of that reassurance.
Though only broad outlines of the plan have been presented so far, those outlines are reassuring.
Rather than repeating last spring's stimulus plan -- mailing out tax rebate checks to practically every American, hoping they'd spend it -- Obama seems to be leaning toward actual investments in the future.
This is appropriate, as the hundreds of billions of dollars paying for the package will go on the nation's credit card, adding to the mammoth federal debt.
Many economists agree that concern about deficit and debt must be deferred during economic downturns, especially one of this magnitude.
But America's federal debt has reached shameful levels. A stimulus package may be prudent, even necessary, but producing something tangible and lasting from it is the least that can be done for the future generations who will get the bill.
So fix the nation's crumbling and neglected infrastructure. Invest in the development of alternative sources of energy. Build new schools where needed.
These are all investments the federal government could make that would provide jobs and pump money into the economy while also leaving something lasting.
Obama should also make it clear that reining in the federal deficit will be a major priority once the economy is back on solid footing.
The signals so far are encouraging. At a Monday news conference called to announce his economic team, Obama said, "To make the investments we need, we'll have to scour our federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well."
The current economic crisis is, as Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria put it, "epochal." But even that must not be allowed to overshadow, for long, the unsustainable fiscal course of the federal government.
