Monday, November 24, 2008

How Stimulating

A number of people are impressed by Barack Obama's economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, but watching him on TV recently, all I saw was the same demagoguery I hoped we'd be getting rid of. Listen to this selection:

And so the thing is, we’ve had a period, under this administration, where they resisted the idea of economic recovery. The approach has been, let’s, sort of, look the other way and things will get better.

We’ve tried not having a stimulus. We’ve tried not having a housing plan. We’ve tried not giving tax cuts to ordinary Americans. And it hasn’t worked. I mean, look out the window. That’s where it is. And so that’s -- kind of, that era of dithering is going to end. Starting January 20, Obama’s coming in. We’re out with the dithering. We’re in with a bang. That’s what it’s got to be
.

"They resisted the idea of economic recovery"? Too silly to refute.

But the part about we tried not having a stimulus? Let's leave aside Yoda-like questions of how you can try not to do things. All the Bush administration has tried to do for the past couple months is have a stimulus (and it wasn't their first). As for tax cuts, Bush gave them to everyone who paid taxes, with the biggest cut going to the lowest bracket.

I was hoping for a reasonable discussion from Goolsbee, but all I'm hearing is "no one really knows what to do, but we're going to give the appearance of doing an awful lot, and hope we catch a break--and while we plan to do almost exactly what Bush is doing, nevertheless, since the one thing we know that works is saying Bush is at fault, we're going to claim we're doing the opposite."

PS. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the best plan is to look the other way until things get better.

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Sarah Palin said that, they'd print it without punctuation and say she can't speak English.

1:04 AM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Sarah Palin said that, they'd look for cue cards

9:01 AM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Barack Obama said that, they'd say his teleprompter wasn't on -- as if that excused his doltitude.

If Joe Biden said that, they'd neglect to report his obvious errors.

3:31 PM, November 24, 2008  
Blogger demosthenes said...

See: http://www.teamsarah.org

3:44 PM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"We could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about."

3:49 PM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Austan Goolsbee? Obama would do better to hire this guy instead:

http://digitalheadbutt.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/austin-powers.jpg

3:51 PM, November 24, 2008  
Blogger Fat Man said...

"Let's leave aside Yoda-like questions of how you can try not to do things."

Yoda: No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.

5:30 PM, November 24, 2008  
Blogger Anthony said...

We’ve tried not having. A stimulus we’ve tried: not having a housing plan we’ve tried not. Giving tax cuts to ordinary Americans and it hasn’t worked. I mean look out. The window, that’s where it is. And so that’s kind of that era of dithering. Is going to end starting. January 20, Obama’s coming in, we’re out. With the dithering we’re in with. A bang, that’s what it’s got to be.

6:35 PM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent transcript, Anthony.

6:44 PM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I seem to remember getting $600.00 earlier this year. What does he mean no economic stimulus. How many checks will we get a year under Obama.

8:03 PM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I heard the same quote from Goolsbee on Bloomberg radio this morning and couldn't believe what I was hearing. As a conservative Ph.D in economics, I am impressed that Obama went for Christina Romer over not ready for prime time Goolsbee.

9:12 PM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Goolsbee's mug is really unfortunate. He's a decent-looking guy, for a young baldy, but Christ -- he's even smirkier than W.

10:21 PM, November 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What I heard is that we've tried a free-market economy, now it's time to install a centrally-planned economy. And to think that TV inteviewer had the gaul to accuse them of promoting communist-style government.

9:32 AM, November 25, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"What I heard is that we've tried a free-market economy, now it's time to install a centrally-planned economy."

Was this a fantasy show?

9:46 AM, November 25, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yesterday on NPR's All Things Considered, Goolsbee said (paraphrase) that the current economic crisis is exactly like Hurricane Katrina hitting the entire country instead of just Louisiana and Mississippi.

10:46 AM, November 25, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Goolsbee is clearly trying to conjure up Katrina when he criticized the present administrations reaction to this crisis. It's just more of his demagoguery.

11:02 AM, November 25, 2008  

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