[lbo-talk] liberal austerity

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Fri Mar 27 06:26:29 PDT 2009


On Thu, 26 Mar 2009, Max B. Sawicky wrote:


> The only thing that will be wired into the Gov's policy is the stimulus
> boodle and the Fiscal Year 2010 budget (oct 09 to sept 10). By that
> standard this is a ginormous boost in non-defense spending.

I have a question for you, O Budget Maven. Since so much of Obama's budget is deficit spending; and since much of it is directed at areas that progressives wanted to see in the Stimpak, like green investment, health care and state aid (to education); is it possible to argue that part of all of the extra $500B of longer term spending that most of us wanted to see in the Stimpak is in the budget? That is to say, that essentially the Obama administration cut the stimpak in two; passed the $800B in one month by leaving the long term stuff out; and then a week later, started the fight for the long term stuff as a component of the budget, which they knew would take a long time to get, if they can get it at all?

Do the numbers support that or is that just wishful thinking?

Michael



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