Obama's Jobs Plan, and Confidence...

I honestly think he make lots of sense with his speech. Although I know congress has to agree with it. And thats where the problem lies. Obama knows what he wants but now congress will bicker back and forth as usual. I feel confident in what he said tonight, if that is what happens. So, I don't think the uncertainty is coming from the president, it is coming from congress. If they cannot get over this right and left thing, we are all screwed.

I thought that the first stimulus package was supposed to do - reduce unemployment, provide shovel ready job to repair the infrastructure and put money back into the economy and get things going. And by the way we have to do it right away before people have a chance to read the bill. What I hear and read is that business wants to have certainty from the government. Right now we see congress vote cap and trad down and a regulatory agency (EPA) establishes new rules that had been voted down by congress. You have a company, Boeing that wants to creat new jobs in a state where they already are doing business and the NRLB, a regulatory agency, is trying to stop the expansion. The government asks the people to buy American and then buys bridges from China. Even a statute to MLK was made in China. The Health Care industry , which is usually recession resistance, is cutting jobs - because they don't know what the new regulations will be under Obama Care. Will the new regulation limit reimbursement, cut medical procedures, make new requirements for health care workers. No one knows what is coming down the pipe. Finally the plan will be paid for with future cuts in spending increases, not a cut in current spending. Bottom line this plan is a tax increase plan to give the government more money to spend on their pet projects.

What "risk"? The big corporations have been sitting on billions of dollars for years now! I think extending the payroll tax cut will help make lower and middle class income workers have a little more confidence and they'll at least continue to have a few extra dollars to spend. Do you have a better idea? Annie

I think it will help and it is a move from the theory that got us here in the first place which was Keynesian Economics which took 16 years the last time. For those that aren't that familiar with Economics Keynesian Economics is where the bailouts came from and is the strategy that FDR followed. It took until after the war for the Economy to recover. WWII actually helped the economy because the government stopped trying to make it work and the market was allowed to work itself out to where it boomed then we had a slight dip and a few recessions. See Keynesian Economics fails to recognize that the Market will have Booms as well as recessions as it grows kinda like a growing pain and if it is allowed to grow and flow freely it will be a stronger economy and market when it comes back. So Obama is right now speaking against the Mainstream thought which is that Keynesian worked. The mainstream got this idea because WWII covered up the effects of the economy being down. But Wars destroy the economy in regards to assets. Especially when they are long drawn out wars. I think this will help the economy. But I think it won't pass because of those cuts to Social Security in the form of taxes this will kill Social Security and make it go completely insolvent earlier than the 2036ish projections. I personally don't think Social Security is a Constitutional thing anyway. I mean the government has been stealing from that for ever that it is a scam for the people who are in my age group who won't collect on the system. I was surprise that this wasn't a 450 Billion Dollar the Federal Reserve will print more money thing. I am proud that maybe Obama has realized that inflation is not good for the economy and maybe like the Republicans last night mister Ben needs to leave the Charmanship of the Federal Reserve because he has no idea how to run the economy.

As a general point, not really to the topic per se, I do wish Obama supporters were a little more coherent in their arguments and not only habitual mimics, blaming anyone and anything but government spending and regulation. It's really to the point where it's boring to read, listen to, and argue back with shills whose idea of solutions is to create a new straw man to blame every single time another big-spending idea or policy falls flat. It's dishonest and borderline disgusting at this point, as that line of argument also brings with it the hostility we see on display levied at the tea party and one of the smallest Congressional minorities that exists today. In terms of confidence, I do not see how this instills confidence in anyone. If all you needed to govern was a great speech, Obama would be America's greatest political leader of all time. But once you get past the two extremes, the unadulterated adoration for the messiah come again, or the disdain for a supposed usurper, you're left with a bit of confusion. Obama sets up this big speech months in advance, stating he's going to deliver a plan. Along the way, he drops bits and pieces of said plan to friendly audiences and some of it carefully leaks from the White House. Then on the big night, when everyone's ready to do their duty and applaud like mad every time Obama has a "we didn't land on Plymouth Rock" moment, he pulls a Nancy Pelosi, basically saying that we need to pass the bill to know what's in it. Are you kidding me right now? I'm sitting here trying hard to be fair with our President, but it all seems like such a sham. He sets this up far in advance, delivers a healthcare redux address to a joint session of Congress, and then puts 100% of the onus on everyone else to do the work. Oh, and btw, he'll chime in in another two weeks with yet another master plan on how to pay for it all. How can anyone be confident in the midst of this confusion? Are employers even sure what happened tonight, beyond hearing that they might get some tax relief? I don't think so. There hasn't been this much lead-up to a disappointment since Costner's Waterworld.

Haven't we seen this rodeo before. Last time it was 1 trillion dollars, now it is only 460 Billion, more.