We Just Don't Learn

Atrios:

Giving Up

Chuck Toddler informs us that Obama, in SOTU, will push for 3 year non-defense discretionary spending freeze.

And then, I suppose, he'll "focus" on jobs. Message: Obama cares.

We are ruled by idiots.

Obama and his administration has pretty much had all their outlooks wrong this past year; stimulus was too small, unemployment is still at 10% and the real estate market ain't looking too good. Bang up job Timmeh and Larreh. Not surprised, obviously the move to the deficit spending while still blowing shit up is to appease our center right nation, who by the way knows absolutely nothing whatsoever. But I get the politics...

FDR fell for this trap his second year as well and it led to a REAL "double dip" the so called deficit hawks pee their pants over. The question is if on Wednesday during the SOTU this "spending freeze" is a political game to make the bedwetters happy or really as idiotic as it sounds.

MSNBC:

Among the president's ideas:

* Nearly doubling the tax credit that families making under $85,000 can receive for child care costs, with some help for families earning up to $115,000, too.
* Capping the size of periodic federal college loan repayments at 10 percent of borrowers' discretionary income to make payments more affordable.
* Increasing by $1.6 billion the money pumped into a federal fund to help working parents pay for child care, covering an estimated 235,000 additional children.
* Requiring employers who don't offer 401(k) retirement plans to offer direct-deposit IRAs for their employees, with exemptions for the smallest firms.
* Spending more than $100 million to help people care for their elderly parents and get support for themselves as well.

The White House maintained that its imperative still is to create jobs. Unemployment remains in double digits, and the economy is the public's top concern. Yet Obama said that squeezed families need help in other ways, too: paying for child care, helping out aging parents, saving for retirement, paying off college debt.

What matters ultimately to people, Obama said, is "whether they see some progress in their own lives. So we're going to keep fighting to rebuild our economy so that hard work is once again rewarded, wages and incomes are once again rising, the middle class is once again growing."

Nice touches with families and retirement planning, "Obama cares." I am trying not to be so pessimistic, but damn it is tough.

I am Frank Chow and I approved this message