Where’s the Stimulus?
As Barack Obama withstood the criticism and scrutiny of the first hundred days in Presidential office, he turns to the troubling problem of solving the nation’s healthcare woes. The falling Dow average has made many stock market watchers nervous that the illusion of economic better times to come is just that, an illusion. Competing objectives for services and jobs, energy growth and foreign policy, not to mention the Iraq war, make for compelling distractions from full time Stimulus building.
The $3.6 trillion budget for year 2010 has many lawmakers and government servants worried. Many advocates of the Stimulus estimate that immediate recovery and long term rebuilding of economic stability nationwide will take time and present special challenges and growing pains. Americans are still waiting for the first cycle of positive revenue and actual recovery from dim years of diminishing markets. The consequences of failure mean that the GOP might spear their way back into policy during Obama’s administration.
But the Stimulus is hardly a done deal. Money that has been funded to local governments has caused management woes in some states over burdened with infrastructure and unhappiness in other states due to the direction some of the monies are going in. Clocking the F.D.R. Fireside Tweets, Obama has been accused of overexposure trying to get the word out about his convictions on healthcare and more.
At a time when the economy is still low, the job market is depressed, and housing starts are dead in the water, Americans are not feeling stimulated just yet. Confidence in Obama remains high, but when hope dwindles will Americans give Obama a wide berth to effect policy? The continuing foreign policy challenges may rob Obama of the long term ability to entrench his economic beliefs into the grass roots practices need for the Stimulus to work.
Americans surveyed since the Stimulus and Recovery Act was passed are optimistic about Obama’s leadership yet do not feel that crisis has passed, nor do they see the full impact of the billions of dollars spent. The crisis of slicing federal budgets has many citizens worried that money rolling for the stimulus is being offset by budget cuts for needed services and programs. Some advisors express concern that the net benefit of the Stimulus project could be lost in aid and services cut inside the federal budget.
Obama has spoken to Americans and advised them that working closely with federal and state offices to make sure TARP type frauds do not happen. Obama has stipulated that economic oversight of Stimulus funds will be as consistent as his economic advisors can render it. But before the states can see the beneficial effects of the Stimulus, cogent recovery of fiscal pork barrel spending and earmarks must end.
Obama has settled into the “job’ but the economy has many more rows to hoe before it gets back in the black. Many voters have had confidence that this quiet leader could effect change as soon as possible for the country. But layoffs, downsizing, and grim flat or declining demand continue in many consumer markets. Obama’s (Stimulus) New Deal may not be able to maintain economies as crippled as many in the United States, such as real estate, banking, manufacturing and cars.
Obama has expressed his wish that state governments work directly with organizations to distribute the monies intended for Stimulus projects. And domestic cleanup and other programs were designed to be funded at the state level by the distribution of Stimulus monies.
But with the world economy shrinking at the current rate, foreign countries may not even have the consumer demand to sustain the industries Obama’s Stimulus policy is designed to resurrect. The cabinet has been in meetings constantly to address criticism and handling of Stimulus related issues. And the much-proposed cap-and-trade still has a lot of enemies. Overseas energy products feeling the benefit of American dollars hasn’t yet stung United States empirical sympathies. And traditionally a global health report card disdains patriotic pocketbooks. But the economic public craves more details about the full recovery plan and needs to see its impetus in real commerce before giving Obama a passing grade for the next 100 days.
More announcements must certainly follow if markets and stocks continue to plunge like (GM) to $1.
