Our View: Latest Obama stimulus plan too little, too late

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September 8, 2010

The Salem News Wed Sep 08, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

Had President Obama begun his administration with the kind of infrastructure spending he is proposing now, there might not be the need for the kind of desperation move this latest "stimulus" program represents.

Pouring billions of dollars into the repair and expansion of the nation's roads, rail lines and airports, along with similar capital projects, should have been the first priority when the president launched his economic recovery program shortly after his inauguration in January 2009. Instead, he and his fellow Democrats chose to lard these initiatives with more public-sector spending than incentives for private-sector hiring, as a result of which we have been saddled with our present, very unsatisfactory "jobless recovery."

Having found the pace and direction of the "change" Obama promised very much wanting, voters are already in the mood to shake things up once again, according to recent polls. The Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress appear at great risk, which is why Labor Day found the president in Milwaukee promising to use federal funds to rebuild 150,000 miles of roadway, lay and maintain 4,000 miles of railway, and build a "next-generation air traffic control system."

Taxpayers, having already committed more than a trillion dollars to the cause of stimulating the economy, can be forgiven their skepticism. Some may even agree with the National Republican Congressional Committee's description of it as a "last-ditch attempt" by Democrats "to salvage their crumbling political careers."

The average American — unlike, apparently, the average member of Congress or the Obama administration — is fully cognizant of the danger inherent in spending money you don't have. A narrowly focused, fully paid-for stimulus program of the type Obama described Monday should have been his administration's goal from the start, not its Plan B.

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