President-Elect Obama (awesome!) laid out more specifics about his plans for economic stimulus in his weekly radio address today. The deep recession we’re entering into is horrible for the country, and most people assume that it will be horrible for Obama, as it will limit his options, and provide ammo to deficit hawks. There is a substantial silver lining, however. As unemployment spirals ever-higher, Obama’s “change” mandate becomes more and more powerful. In the meantime, there is an uncommon level of agreement among economists, both conservative and liberal, that massive stimulus is required.
In today’s video, Obama lays out a five-point plan for stimulus through infrastructure spending.
All of these proposals are likely to get a large amount of support from the general public, with objections only from deficit hawks. But with the economy being in such dire straits, I find it hard to believe that anybody will be able to provide serious objections to upgrading schools. This leaves us with a popular president with a mandate to deficit spend hundreds of billions of dollars on popular programs. All things considered, that’s not such a bad place for President Obama to be.