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...trouble with the demented math behind the stimulus package is that it requires economists who believe that unemployment is moving toward 9% to subtract jobs from the economy faster than government programs create them. Most members of Congress and the Administration believe that the new legislation will take 18 to 24 months to have its full effect. An unimaginable downturn could cause the loss of six or seven million jobs...
There is a temptation to say that the stimulus package is simply a cruel trick, meant to give people some hope. Members of Congress will be able to take credit for its results two years from now if it works, or they can simply say the economy was too far gone to be saved if it fails. Either way, the issue is not creating 3.5 million jobs. It is creating 8 or 9 million. - Douglas A. McIntyre...
...Bush to clean up the mismanaged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gates' greatest legacy may come in what he calls a "strategic reshaping" that better outfits the U.S. military to wage coming wars. Future weapons buys must "be driven more by the actual capabilities of potential adversaries," Gates told Congress a few weeks ago, "and less by what is technologically feasible given unlimited time and resources." Pentagon procurement, he said, is plagued by a "risk-averse culture, a litigious process, parochial interests, excessive and changing requirements, budget churn and instability and sometimes adversarial relationships within the Department of Defense...
...second front, Congress, is, if anything, harder. During an appearance on Capitol Hill, lawmakers pushed him to declare their pet programs safe. Senator James Inhofe pressed Gates to protect the FCS program, whose high-tech cannon is built in Oklahoma, Inhofe's home state. "We have a nation where steel mills are shutting down," said Representative Gene Taylor, whose Mississippi district builds ships and who chairs the House Seapower Subcommittee and co-chairs the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus. "I would ask you to encourage your acquisition folks to take advantage of these low prices." Shutting down the F-22 line means...
Consider our recent track record. Last July, Congress passed a bill to help the housing market. In an effort to churn demand and stabilize home prices, the bill created a $7,500 tax break for first-time home buyers. It also created a program to prevent foreclosures. Unfortunately, no major lenders signed up. Bottom line: only 25 loans have been rewritten...