Obama Economic Speech

The President-Elect is about to give a "major economic speech" where he'll layout the rationale for his stimulus plan. Needless to say, it's pretty much the same demand side argument we've heard from him over the last year or so.

President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that the U.S. recession could "linger for years" unless Congress acts to pump unprecedented sums from Washington into the U.S. economy, making his highest-profile case yet on an issue certain to define his early presidency.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said in a speech set to be delivered at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, outside Washington. Excerpts from his prepared text were released in advance by his transition team.

"A bad situation could become dramatically worse," he said, painting a dire picture -- including double-digit unemployment and $1 trillion in lost economic activity -- that recalled the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

If spending were the key to prosperity, given all the increased spending the federal government has been doing over the last few years, especially over the last year, shouldn't we be rolling in the rainbows and unicorns by now?

Possibly complicating Obama and the Democrats plan, the Chinese don't seem so keen on continuing to play banker to us. Hmmm, I wonder why.

I'll update if anything interesting comes out of the speech but I'm guessing it'll be more scare mongering and demand for huge increases in spending.

posted by DrewM. at 11:14 AM

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