IT'S NOT surprising that the much-ballyhooed "economic stimulus" hasnt' done much stimulating . . . . The program crafted by Obama and the Democratic Congress wasn't engineered to maximize its economic impact. It was mostly a political exercise, designed to claim credit for any recovery, shower benefits on favored constituencies and signal support for fashionable causes.
As a result, much of the stimulus's potential benefit has been squandered. . . .
. . . .
[There's] a gap between Obama's high-minded rhetoric and his performance. In February, Obama denounced "politics as usual" in constructing the stimulus. But that's what we got, and Obama likes the result. Interviewed recently by ABC's Jake Tapper, he was asked whether he would change anything. Obama seemed to invoke a doctrine of presidential infallibility. "There's nothing that we would have done differently," he said.
(Robert J. Samuelson, "The Squandered Stimulus," Washington Post, July 20, 2009)
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