Could Obama's Stimulus Plan Reach A Trillion Dollars? Maybe.

A new metaphysical question for a new age...can Obama make up a number so big even He can't spend it? Early indications are, apparently not.

Anxious to jolt the economy back to life, President-elect Barack Obama appears to be zeroing in on a stimulus package of about $850 billion, dwarfing last spring's tax rebates and rivaling drastic government actions to fight the Great Depression.

Obama has not settled on a grand total, but after consulting with outside economists of all political stripes, his advisers have begun telling Congress the stimulus should be bigger than the $600 billion initially envisioned, congressional officials said Wednesday.

...Obama aides also pointed to recommendations by Mark Zandi, the lead economist at Moody's Economy.com and an informal McCain adviser who has been proposing a $600 billion plan.

"I would err on the side of making it larger than making it smaller," Zandi said in an interview. "The size of the plan depends on the forecast — the economic outlook — and that is darkening by the day."

"Even a trillion is not inconceivable," he said.

Call me when we start to count in Quatloos.

Seriously though, if shoving money out the door as fast as you can print it is the key to prosperity, shouldn't Zimbabwe be the most prosperous country on the face of the Earth?

I wanted to get a preview of the next few years so I just started reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes. Suffice it to say, I'm scared out of my mind.

And before Republicans get too indignant over this idea, we should remember that federal spending was already off the charts this year under a Republican president before the bailouts hit.

The government's spending commitments exploded by 25 percent in 2008, putting taxpayers more than $1 trillion in the hole even before the astronomical costs of the economic bailout were taken into account, according to an annual report released Monday by the White House.

A joint report by the White House budget office and Treasury Department said that much of the increase in obligations came from an unexpected jump in veterans benefits liabilities, while revenues remained mostly flat because of the recession that began a year ago.

Jim Nussle, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, called the report "sobering."

Sobering? Hell, it makes me want to get drunk.

posted by DrewM. at 10:26 PM

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