OK so it is not exactly Austrian but the AP’s fact check of President Obama’s speech proves interesting.
Finally someone other than the Austrians is beginning to question Obama’s economics.
The following is the first part of the AP’s article.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s plea for patience in the economic turmoil Tuesday fits with the view of most economists that a turnaround will take some time. It doesn’t fit quite so neatly with his bullish budget. The president’s spending plans and deficit projections rest on the assumption that the economy will post solid growth next year after a mild, further decline this year. Many economists think that’s too rosy.
Obama was more cautious than that in his prime-time news conference — possibly to the point of having it both ways.
A look at some of his statements and how they square with the facts:
The claim: “We will recover from this recession. But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other, that’s when we succeed.”
The facts: No one really knows when the recession will end. But Obama’s own budget forecasts the recession will continue through this year but with a relatively shallow 1.2 percent decline in the gross domestic product.
Then, the budget predicts solid 3.2 percent growth for 2010, followed by three years of more than 4 percent growth each year.
Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said this week she was “incredibly confident” the U.S. economy will recover within a year.
Congressional Republicans and some Democratic budget hawks have suggested the Obama budget projections are unduly optimistic to make the math to pay for the president’s programs work. The higher the GDP growth, the more tax revenues come in.
Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office last week predicted that the Obama budget would produce deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
Obama: “In this budget, we have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term even under the most pessimistic estimates.”
The facts: Not all credible estimates foresee a deficit halved in that time.
Obama’s budget forecast a deficit of $530 billion by the end of 2013. That would cut by half the deficit he inherited at the start of his term. To succeed, Obama is counting on a recovered economy, a tax boost for the rich and success in easing foreign entanglements. But his assertion that he can accomplish that “even under the most pessimistic estimates” flies in the face of an answer he gave moments later.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts that Obama’s spending plan would leave a deficit of $672 billion by the end of 2013. Explaining the differences between his projections and CBO’s, Obama said: “They’re assuming a growth rate of 2.2 (percent), we’re assuming a growth rate of 2.6.”
Click to read the Full Article
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What exactly does he mean by halve the deficit? One year it’s $1 trillion, the next $500 billion, there you go it’s halved. That should be pretty easy to do.
Reminds me of the compulsive clearance shopping wife – “But honey – I’m saving so much money!”
Romer says she’s “incredibly confident”? How do you describe yourself as “incredibly confident”? Even she can’t believe how confident she is?
Obama is going to average $1 trillion a year for the next 10 years? (He’s only going to be in for four, max, but I digress.) So that’s better than Bush, HOW?
How is it that you can propose such a thing and get the reputation that your ‘fixing’ something?
He probably would’ve been better off pumping out a $2 trillion deficit in the first year, that is much easier to halve.
2% GROWTH next year? With banks and financial institutions propped up by the government? Housing prices still at bubble levels?
Now THAT is the audacity of hope.
Obama budget could bring $9.3 trillion in deficits
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s budget would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, more than four times the deficits of Republican George W. Bush’s presidency, congressional auditors said Friday.
The new Congressional Budget Office figures offered a far more dire outlook for Obama’s budget than the new administration predicted just last month — a deficit $2.3 trillion worse. It’s a prospect even the president’s own budget director called unsustainable.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_budget
US Treasury is just one giant Ponzi scheme!
What happens if the growth rate is less than -1.2%? Hmmm.
Christina Romer is incredibly confident that she can keep her job as the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers if and only if she continues to state that she is incredibly confident.
I listened to an NPR interview with some disgruntled Obama supporters that recently lost their jobs. Interestingly enough these individuals were complaining that the “hope” that was promised didn’t come fast enough. What they don’t realize is that placing hope in a politician is irresponsible. The right formula is hope + personal responsibility – government intervention.
Obama should’ve used the rhetorical campaign slogan “HOPE†instead of “CHANGEâ€. It would have been more accurate.
When the landlord comes around looking for the rent money, I’ll just give him some Obama Hope–that’ll be enough.
“Christina Romer … said this week she was “incredibly confident” the U.S. economy will recover within a year.”
The literal meaning of the word incredible is “not believable”. Nuff said.
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