Thursday, January 8, 2009

Obama's big economy speech: Grim


Earlier this morning, president-elect Barack Obama delivered an economic address from the campus of George Mason University (remember them?) It was unsurprisingly short on details, talking about transparency and working together and new technologies and whatnot. The only actual policy was the announcement of a $1,000 tax cut to middle class families, because Bruce Wayne has enough money, maybe.

What was most memorable about the address was it's tone. Normally, presidents don't like to talk about how bad the economy is actually doing for fear of causing panic in the markets. While Obama wasn't willing to go in depth with the specifics of his recovery plan, he was more than willing to get specific about how awful the economy is. According to Obama, 2.8 million people have had to go form full-time to part-time employment, manufacturing is at a 28 year low, and the economy could fall as much a $1 trillion below capacity. No political entity was blamed for the terrible economy (though cmon, who do you think he was talking about when he said "an era of irresponsibility") because we're all post-partisan or something.

I guess there's nothing wrong with him outright saying the economy is in the toilet and it's getting worse before it gets better. It's not like it's a secret anymore. Still, it's a little odd to hear a president say things suck right now, even though we all know it to be true.

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