Americans Aren't Brain Dead part XLVIII

Poll: Stimulus not helping Americans personally - Austin Business Journal:: "More than three-quarters of Americans say the economic stimulus is not helping their financial situation and another 57 percent say it is not helping the overall economy, according to a new poll.

Sixty-eight percent of those questioned in a survey of 1,010 adults by the Gallup Inc. for the USA Today newspaper said the Obama administration’s stimulus has not impacted their personal finances, while 13 percent said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has hurt. Eighteen percent said federal economic efforts have made things better."

Starting out your administration by hawking and signing a $787B fraud is not a good way to build trust.

Slow Learners - But Not Brain Dead

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Europe's Lesson: "last weekend, a Gallup Poll showed most Americans for the first time view President Obama unfavorably when it comes to 'controlling federal spending.'"

Duh!

How Long Before the Purge at the CBO?

News Headlines - $1 trillion deficits seen for next 10 years : Townhall.com:

"President Barack Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1
trillion a year over the next decade, according to the latest congressional
estimates, significantly worse than predicted by the White House just last
month.
The Congressional Budget Office figures, obtained by The Associated
Press Friday, predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink
over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the White House predicted in its
budget.
Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would
never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists
agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5
percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level."

The only surprise here is that the CBO is still free to make and publicly release honest analysis of government economic policy.

adding more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined.

Michael Boskin Says Barack Obama Is Moving Us Toward a European-Style Social Welfare State and Long-Run Economic Stagnation - WSJ.com:

"Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs."

When President Obama likes to remind us of the debt he inherited, you just have to laugh.

A New "Chicago School" of Economics

Reminiscent of his presidential debate exchange with Charlie Gibson regarding the impact of capital gains taxes on treasury revenue, President Obama once again showed what a serious economic mind he has:

Obama rejected calls for more tax cuts and significant slashing of the bill's
more than $800 billion price tag, and said complaints the package was a
spending bill rather than a stimulus bill were off base.
"What do you think a stimulus bill is?" he said. "That's the point."
To critics who argue that the government shouldn't be spending billions with a large and
growing deficit, Obama said, "I found this national debt doubled, wrapped in a big bow
waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office."

Obama fires up House Democrats to help push through stimulus bill - CNN.com

Oh, I see. The fact the George Bush, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid already spent us into oblivion makes tripling that deficit in the space of two weeks a good economic policy. Guess you have to go to Harvard to learn to reason like that.

What I don't understand is, if any and all government spending qualifies as stimulus, shouldn't our economy already be REALLY stimulated?