Evidence is accumulating that the stimulus bill not only is a stinker, but also that more and more people know it.
We need 1) to clear out the bad debt. 2) We need a classic, short-term stimulus bill of relatively modest girth (350 billion) that emphasizes immediate public works. And 3) we need to induce people with money on the sidelines to invest it voluntarily to create new jobs.
We don't need to reward people who already have jobs, to pay off the education lobby, the government unions and the community organizers. That kind of thing soaks up available capital and damages the economy long term.
We also don't need legislation that is seen as punitive and rewards the trial bar; e.g., the new Lilly Ledbetter Act that the President made his first bill to sign and that will lead to more discrimination lawsuits, hardly the medicine the business world needs right now.
Money isn't infinite. You can confiscate everything people who have jobs make beyond basic living expenses and you still will not have enough government funds to cover all the dependent people in America (the poor elderly, the physically handicapped, the mentally ill, the prison population, the homeless and the children), let alone provide work for people now unemployed. Look at the mess California's over-generous politicos have gotten that state into.
People need to feel confident that if they take risks with their investment capital they won't be punished or attacked. They need to know (as in any capitalist economy) that the rules won't be changed suddenly. Right now they lack incentives to take risks again. Our economy needs to grow out of the current slump and the President needs to show that he understands this.
There are supposedly smart people on the new president's team, such as Volker, Summers and Geithner. Can they get through to him while there is time?
