It is looking more and more like another stimulus plan is on the way. Today, Paul Krugman and liberals in Congress are actively pushing for action. We still have yet to see any jobs created from the $787 billion package that passed earlier this year. The Administration promised we would soon be shrinking the jobless rolls, but Americans are still waiting, as seen in yesterday’s new unemployment record.
Jonathan Weisman, in the Wall Street Journal, analyzes the possibility of a new stimulus.
Yet pressure is growing to do more to reverse job losses. In January, during the Obama transition, Council of Economic Advisers Chairman-designee Christina Romer and Obama economic adviser Jared Bernstein predicted in a report that with an $800 billion stimulus, the unemployment rate would be just about 7% by this time. Without the stimulus, the rate would be at 9%.
The jobless rate, of course, is at 9.5%. Now, because the White House economists are so talented at predicting the jobless rate, they want more money.
On CNBC Thursday, Ms. Romer was pressed on the possibility of a second stimulus. “We’ll do whatever it takes,” she said.
And leading Democrats will likely follow suit.
The chairman of the Senate appropriations committee, Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii), said in February, on the same day that President Obama signed the stimulus plan into law, that a second package might be necessary. Mr. Inouye’s counterpart in the House, Rep. David Obey (D., Wis.), hasn’t made a similar call, but has said that he wanted the first package to be bigger.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D., Minn.) also backs more infrastructure spending, and thinks it is “the best way to stimulate the economy, create jobs, reduce transportation costs, and get the country moving again,” his spokesman Jim Berard said Thursday.
Americans are already frustrated with the failure of the stimulus. If Democrats pile on more debt for taxpayers, expect outrage.