Heading Nowhere Fast

President Obama has claimed that one of the supporting arguments for the bill is that it relies partially on improving infrastructure to speed the economy and flow of goods and services in general. Why would he place so much emphasis on a topic that occupies less than 5% of the spending? Only $30 billion out of the $789 billion is being implemented for repairing and replacing bridges and other infrastructure applications. Obama’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag, states “Even those (public works) that are “on the shelf” generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy.” It does seem rather contradictive that someone on Obama’s own budget team would admit that 5% of the bill is somewhat ineffective in an area that Obama has stressed so much.

Lastly, people need to realize what else this bill can do to them. With our current national deficit, each citizen has roughly $36,687.43 of the debt to carry as a citizen. It is already crazy that aside from credit cards you haven’t paid, mortgage payments, car payments, or whatever else you may have indulged upon, you are also in debt as part of this country. The new stimulus bill adds an extra $11,000 in debt to the average family of four that will be paid slowly over the next few decades until the stimulus is paid off by hardworking taxpayers. This added tax weight doesn’t even include the fact that this stimulus spending will accrue interest over the decades that it may take to pay it off. This $789 billion is estimated to rise with interest to over $1.1 trillion by the time it is paid off (which would require the national deficit to reverse itself in the first place).

After all is said and done, this stimulus begins to sound like it may not be the best deal. With that being stated, the situation deserves some alternate solutions. Right now it’s seemingly the “Obama” way, or ceaseless economic turmoil and chaos. If you are a company that is struggling, now is absolutely not the time to cut back on advertising. Advertising should become your priority because even during the Great Depression, some companies did manage to prosper such as Kellogg’s cereal. Those companies that seem well enough to advertise during desperate times instill confidence in consumers. If and when we emerge from the recession, consumers can only treat your brand as more reliable and respectable for staying strong, earning you possible lifelong customers. As far as solutions to turning the economy around, we could start with a slashing of our marginal corporate tax rate which is second highest in the world. Allowing large corporations to prosper and enjoy a larger portion of their profits can benefit everyone. Lightening up on their taxes prevents them from firing workers, cutting pay, and decreasing advertising expenses. Allowing corporations to prosper leads to growth and expansion, which will surely create the need for workers. And who knows how to create jobs better than the companies we end up working at?

Unfortunately, it is too late to turn back and select an alternate way to approach this major economic recession, as Obama’s Rescue and Recovery plan has been hailed as the only choice, and has already begun its implementation phase. The money is being spent, the taxpayers will pay, and nothing that is said or done will change that scenario. If this plan indeed proves itself one of the biggest blunders ever made by the United States government, at least it will be understandable as to how it came about. Obama’s plan goes against the natural cycle of economics with artificial demand, raises the national deficit while straddling Americans with more debt to be paid in taxes, suffers from poor organization and ineffective implementation, and most importantly is a repeat of an idea that has been tried and failed. May God help us all.