Obama wants critics to show him a better idea to stimulate the economy

Yes, you are right, at this point it seems whatever they do is throw gas in the fire. It's such a mess by now, it might be best to simply let things work out itself. But of course so many people think he'll turn things around, he'll have to do something;)

I agree with you in theory and I really wish this could happen, but the reality would be much more stark and devastating than any government could possibly allow. People could suffer in profound ways, think starving and begging on a wide scale, people not able to afford housing or material goods. The government would be much more harshly criticized for allowing that to happen, though it would do wonders in the long run if you believe in free markets: we'd create a third-world society within our own borders. People's desperate need to have any source of income would allow manufacturers to pay India-level wages and put workers in slums. This may not be unavoidable anyhow. If we just print money to get out of this debt, inflation could push the buying power of minimum wage to poverty levels far below what they currently are. The truth is the damage is already done and we're in for a long, cold economic winter in my view.

People already are suffering and they can not afford housing and material goods. Accountability tracks the gross proceeds and knows where all of the money goes and how it travels. As I said before this is not rocket science. You just follow the trail and there is your answer. The difference in how people are compensated makes the greatest difference of all and it is not about being educated it is always a matter of cronyism a very nefarious program and in need of repair because too many good people are being left out in the cold. The whole economic structure needs to be changed or even eliminated.

The problem is, he won't back better ideas. He proved that by putting his signature on T.A.R.P.

" but considering the likely devastation on a grand scale of doing nothing and letting it run its course" That was exactly the fear mongering paulson and bernankie used that pushed it through. T.A.R.P. was not a bail out, the bail out aspect was only a side result and the smoke and mirrors behind it. We would be no worse off now had it not passed.

I don't know the details of TARP but on the surface it seems a crappy solution, in fact not a solution at all. It's not right to reward the people who put us here, but considering the likely devastation on a grand scale of doing nothing and letting it run its course, which theoretically would be optimal, what's a better solution? It's like the country has cancer and the only solution is intensive radio and chemo-therapy, which could kill us, but cancer will surely kill us. What do you do?

I do understand what you are saying. Still, I do think that they should offer up some positive ideas along with the critisism. At this point, no one really knows how to fix things. We do know that what we are doing now is not working. Sometimes you can't really predict the outcome of a plan until you've tried it. Look at all the great Bush plans that got passed and brought our country to the state is at now. I'm sure that at the time the intent was good. I think Obama is just trying to do something different other than what's already been proven not to work. I am not saying he is right but I don't feel he is being obstinate.

Actually, they did explain why certain things wouldn't work such as the $3k tax reduction for businesses if the retain or retrain a worker. I don't see that disappearing from his package. I see his position as 'so what, unless you show me something that really works we run with this no matter how much you show me that it won't have an effect'. That's not listening IMO.