Obama's stimulus fight

Some lawmakers seem to have forgotten about Barack Obama's mandate for change, said Mike Madden in Salon. Obama has had to go beyond the "normal political smooth-talking" and make a hard sales pitch to get Congress moving on his massive $775 billion economic stimulus plan. But it's not Republicans who are threatening to block him—it's fellow Democrats who think he's spending too much on tax cuts and not enough on creating jobs through public spending on roads, bridges, and other infrastructure.

There's a reason Obama's plan might go over better on the right than on the left, said Robert Kudlow in RealClearMarkets. The president-elect has revised his stimulus since the election—instead of just $100 billion in tax credits he's now offering $300 billion in tax cuts, including a big new piece for business. So it would be hard for conservatives to deny that Obama's plan is "pro-growth."

The business tax cuts are the first thing that should go, said Paul Krugman in The New York Times. Public spending is simply a far more effective tool for creating jobs in the near and long term. The nation needs a plan that will really jump-start the economy—not just one that will sail through Congress.

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Although speed is definitely “of the essence,” said The Economist in an editorial. “The economy is in dreadful shape,” and wise folks all agree that something must be done, fast. But even though some Democrats would rather twist Obama’s arm to enact a new New Deal, Obama is so popular that he will probably enjoy a lengthy honeymoon and get what he wants from Congress.