Obama Shouldn't Have Let Congress Rule The stimulus' success has the potential to make or break the Obama presidency, wrote Salon's Alex Koppelman. So why then didn't Obama craft the bill inside the White House with economists instead of farming it out to "535 people least likely to come up with a coherent, efficient stimulus package?" Koppelman asks the same question about health care reform. "That's arguably the second most important item on Obama's domestic agenda, behind the stimulus, and voters are going to judge him on it come 2012 -- they'll be judging the Democratic congress on it in 2010, too."
Betraying Hope "Such a chance to act both decisively and responsibly to build a lasting block of support and improved fortunes. Squandered," said The Moderate Voice's Jazz Shaw. The hope to rebuild the economy on a sound foundation was "chewed up and spit out by overreach and failed, populist theories of economics."
Goodbye Credibility "Obama bet his fiscal credibility on Porkulus, and he lost it," said Hot Air's Ed Morrissey. "Voters trusted him on the stimulus, and now almost a trillion dollars have been committed with no appreciable impact on economic growth." Had the stimulus "worked," Obama's health care agenda would have stood a better chance.
The Stimulus Is Helping Matthew Yglesias noted that the tax credits in the stimulus bill put money into everyone's pockets who has a job. "That’s a lot more than 18 percent." The Atlantic's Derek Thompson fleshed out Ygelsias point by wondering if the fact that the extra money is spread out over paychecks throughout the year makes people less inclined to spend it than they would be if it was a lump-sum payment, like the "cash for clunkers" program.
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