The Homa Files

Ken’s Take: Sameulson is a left-leaning economist, which should give him some broad credibility. I think his analysis is right on target.  Below are highlights.  Full article is well worth reading.

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Excerpted from IBD, “Stimulus Needs More Power At Front End” Samuelson, February 20, 2009

Judged by his own standards, President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus program is deeply disappointing.

Given his dire warnings (about the economy), you’d expect the stimulus package to focus almost exclusively on reviving the economy. It doesn’t, and for that Obama bears much of the blame. His politics compromised the program’s economics. Look at the numbers.

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The Congressional Budget Office estimates that about $200 billion will be spent in 2011 or later — after it would do the most good. For starters, there’s $8 billion for high-speed rail …  the design and construction will occupy many years. It’s not a quick stimulus.

Then there’s $20.8 billion for improved health information technology — more electronic records and the like. Probably most people regard this as desirable, but here, too, changes occur slowly. The CBO expects only 3% of the money ($595 million) to be spent in fiscal 2009 and 2010.

The peak year of projected spending is 2014 at $14.2 billion.

Consider the retrofitting of federal buildings to make them more energy-efficient.  Obama says “We’re creating jobs immediately.”  Yes — but not many. The stimulus package includes $5.5 billion for overhauling federal buildings. The CBO estimates that only 23% of that would be spent in 2009 and 2010.

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Worse, the economic impact of the stimulus is already smaller than advertised. The package includes a “patch” for the alternative minimum tax. This protects many middle-class Americans against higher taxes and, on paper, adds $85 billion of “stimulus” in 2009 and 2010.

One problem: “It’s not stimulus … Congress was going to do it anyway. They do it every year.” Strip out the AMT patch, and the stimulus drops to about $700 billion, with almost 30% spent after 2010.

The stimulus package offers only modest relief to states. Using funds from the stimulus, states might offset 40% of their looming deficits,. The effect on localities would probably be less.

The stimulus provides most funds to states through specific programs. There’s $90 billion more for Medicaid, $12 billion for special education, $2.8 billion for various policing programs. There’s a big downside: “Temporary” spending hikes for specific programs … will be harder to undo, worsening the long-term budget outlook. The major outcome:  more power centralized in Washington.

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No one knows the economic effects of all this; estimates vary. But Obama’s political strategy stunts the impact from what it might have been.

By using the stimulus for unrelated policy goals, spending will be delayed and diluted.

Politics cannot be removed from the political process. But here, partisan politics ran roughshod over pragmatic economic policy. Even the token concessions (including the AMT provision) to some Republicans weakened the package.

Obama is gambling that his flawed stimulus will seem to work well enough that he’ll receive credit for restarting the economy — and not be blamed for engineering a colossal waste.

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Full article:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=320024639130404

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This entry was posted on February 26, 2009 at 7:33 am and is filed under Government & Politics, Obama - Promises Made & Kept, Obama Administration, Stimulus Plan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.