Senior Advisor to President Obama, David Plouffe, previews the President’s address to a joint session of Congress about how he will continue to grow the economy and his plan to create jobs faster than they are already being created. You can watch the President’s address live, tonight at 7PM EDT at http://whitehouse.gov/live
So, there’s a preview from one of President Obama’s top advisors. What I want is for President Obama to really frame the choices facing our nation right now. I’m looking for him to provide strong leadership and a clear vision of where we need to go. That does NOT mean austerity in the midst of a recession, aka “the exact opposite of what every economics course teaches us.” And no, despite what the ignoramus from Texas said last night in the Republican freak show debate, Keynesian economics is not only not dead, it’s more relevant than ever.
In stark contrast, with interest rates at historic lows, with tremendous slack in the economy, and with an enormous pent-up/backlogged need to invest in America’s infrastructure, there is NO BETTER TIME THAN RIGHT NOW for the government to be putting money into long-term infrastructure — particularly energy efficient and otherwise “green” infrastructure, including “green” schools, buildings, transportation, energy production and transmission, etc. — that will strengthen American for decades to come. What on earth would we be waiting for, higher interest rates and more expensive labor and materials as the economy recovers? What rational reason would lead us to do that? And why would we even think of listening to angry, ignorant voices – the Teapublicans, mostly – telling us to do the exact opposite of what we should be doing, what everything we know about economics teaches us, right now?
Tonight, I urge President Obama to ignore the know-nothings, John Birchers, and Eric Can’tors of the world, and instead to go big, go bold, and lay out a vision for American greatness in the 21st century. That’s not to much to ask from the guy who told us “Yes WE CAN!” in 2008, is it? 🙂
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