First Obama decided to keep some of Bush’s foreign policy team on for awhile. Now he’s basically adopting Bush’ economic policy (that is, tax cuts):
The size of the proposed tax cuts — which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years — is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated. It may make it easier to win over Republicans who have stressed that any initiative should rely more heavily on tax cuts rather than spending.
Hey, I’m not complaining. Much. I mean, it would be nice to see tax cuts and spending cuts, but I won’t hold my breath. But it says a lot that when the economic times are tough, Dems run against their Keynesian ideological principles. I mean, it’s almost as if they think Keynes was wrong!
Or, it could just be that they’re hedging their political bets by trying to include Republicans in on the “stimulus” in order to blame them if and when it fails. (UPDATE: Jon Henke seems to agree with me on that possibility). Of course, with tax cuts it’s less likely that this stimulus will fail. But without necessary spending cuts, it seems most likely that the stiumulus will have only a so-so effect on the economy. There are other more significant variables at work.
So, this gives me hope that Obama won’t be the disaster he would have been if he actually did the things he said he’d do last year before the economic picture changed. Still, this idea of embracing tax breaks for corporations to create jobs: it’s a Republican thing. Democrats have always bought into the Keynesian deficit spending theory. I don’t get it. What “change” exactly are we getting?
Not much–thank God. As I’ve said before, Bush’s economic policy was essentially sound. What got us into trouble was a mixture of government interference in the mortgage market and willingness of congress to look the other way. It’s been a long series of dominoes crashing to the ground. Credit crisis spreads to the already-dysfunctional auto industry, meanwhile the tech boom (still going, in fact) is changing markets all over the world. We’re still in the early days of the information revolution, people. There’s more displacement coming, and it won’t be pretty even if it is necessary and good in the long run.
This may not be change that Obama’s supporters will be happy with, but I’m not complaing yet. Hell, I can imagine some supporters are wondering what the differences between McCain and Obama were at all. So far? Not a hell of a lot. Still early, though: and he’s not president yet.