President Obama is set to unveil the final details Wednesday of yet another of his many economic stimulus programs. The latest wrinkle in the new Obama plan is expected to feature tax credits for corporations investing in research and development. He previously announced a provision in the plan that would allow companies to fully deduct qualified investments made before the end of 2011. Obama also previously announced the plan’s centerpiece — borrowing another $50 billion to spend on public works.
Much of that new spending will go to transportation infrastructure boondoggles like the 13 high-speed rail projects Obama proposed in 2009. He and his environmentalist allies naively think those projects will persuade millions of Americans to stop driving their cars on the interstate and instead crowd into trains. To “pay” for these new tax credits, Obama will propose “closing tax loopholes.”
There are a couple of economic stimulus issues Obama likely will not address Wednesday, starting with why he supports letting the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 expire as scheduled on Jan. 1. Doing that will blow a $921 billion hole in the already weak economy, a move that most reputable economists agree will wreak havoc with job creation just when unemployment is 9.6 percent and rising. Also, don’t expect Obama to explain why borrowing another $50 billion from China and other overseas lenders and injecting it into the economy will spark new economic growth, while Washington taking $921 billion out of the economy won’t have exactly the opposite effect, and massively so.
We’re not even sure why Obama uses “jobs” and “economic stimulus” in the same sentence regarding his proposal, since, as one of his senior advisers told Politico, under even the most optimistic scenarios, no jobs would be created until next year. Put another way, this latest Obama stimulus effort is really designed only to stimulate Democrats and fence-sitting moderates in November.
It’s no wonder then that Rasmussen Reports’ latest telephone survey found 55 percent of voters opposed to yet another stimulus package, while only 31 percent supported it, and 14 percent more were undecided. Will such survey results make Obama and company back off from this newest economic stimulus proposal? Don’t hold your breath: Obamacare passed despite repeated waves of public protests. Sixty three percent of those surveyed by Rasmussen “believe it is at least somewhat likely that Congress will try and pass another economic stimulus package this year.”
Unlike Washington’s politicians, most voters aren’t heading into November with their eyes wide shut.
