I just got around to reading that CBS News article and have a couple responses to it. Note, I also did not watch Obama's tv spot last night.
First off, I agree with Wyatt that Obama isn't laying out a balanced budget or anything. He's talking about all the things he wants to do and, yeah, they cost a lot of money, more than Obama is likely to have available to him. Robert is wrong about the extra $1 trillion per year though. The article notes that health care (the biggest chunk looked at) is estimated to cost 1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. However, even that figure isn't cut and dried. Much like the bailout plan, the upfront costs are going to depend on how it is implemented and the long term net costs are going to depend on what returns we get out of the program. In the bailout, the net cost is going to depend heavily on how much we get back from the sale of stocks when and if those companies and the economy recover. In terms of healthcare spending, the long term cost is going to depend on how successful we are in improving the cost effectiveness of healthcare through preventative medicine and how much a healthier workforce contributes to a more productive economy and how much companies save from greater certainty over healthcare costs. In both the bailout and healthcare, neither the short term investment nor the long term outcome are guaranteed. I'd argue that both are things that we have to do for the good of the country and our long term competitiveness. Overall, I thought that Wyatt's article was pretty decent. The only thing I felt was really missing was an acknowledgment of Obama's plans for revenue increases. He talks some about Obama's claims of savings within the federal government (like getting out of Iraq) but doesn't note that Obama is also looking to repeal certain existing tax cuts. You can agree or disagree with Obama's tax-related plans. That's an honest argument. What really disgusts me are the people that think we can cut everyone's taxes and increase spending for everything. We've had 8 years of that and McCain seems to think that we can keep doing it. I know he talks about "across the board freezes" for federal spending except for the military, but then he keeps talking about healthcare plans and more tax cuts, etc. It just seems dishonest to me in a way that Obama isn't. Obama may not be laying it out as cut and dried as I like, but he at least talks about increasing taxes when he talks about spending. Judah On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 9:51 AM, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The layout for the bailout is somewhere around $1 trillion, not quite that > high. A lot of that money will come back to the Treasury when stocks > recover. > > Obama's spending plans are an extra $1 trillion *per year* - forever! > > Doh! > > On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 7:59 AM, Scott wrote: > >> I share your concern about the trillion here, trillion there. >> >> However, you used an example of poor spending (the bailout) which Obama >> called for and supported (with a lot of support from Democrats) and then >> use >> that to say you don't think McCain will get to the root cause. I fail to >> see >> how one could conclude Obama would get to the root cause since he called >> for >> and Democrats supported the example of poor spending you use against >> McCain. >> > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:277515 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
