President Obama said the usual about his stimulus plan at last night's press conference:
And that is why the single most important part of this economic recovery and reinvestment plan is the fact that it will save or create up to 4 million jobs, because that's what America needs most right now.
I was hoping someone would challenge him on this, since there were real reporters there who could have asked real questions. Not about the jobs created so much, although every one of those claimed by the government can be challenged. But what do you count as a "saved" job, and how do you prove it would have been lost without the government's intervention? If I'm still working in a year, will my job be one of those saved? Should I just go ahead and thank Obama now?
Speaking of jobs, by the way, do the people of Elkhart really think Obama is committed to bringing back the RV industry? His stimulus plan would give Americans a tax cut of somewhere between $500 and $1,500 a year, and it would apply to 95 percent of Americans. But an RV is a high-end item most likely to be bought by the other 5 percent, and they are not exactly being given an incentive to make a major purchase:
Meantime, the New York Times this weekend detailed the other side of what's likely coming: the tax hike on the wealthy. The paper noted that taxpayers making $500,000-$1 million per year will see an average tax increase of $19,700 per year. Those making more than $1 million are really going to get hit, paying an average of more than $175,000 per year in extra taxes.
Did the people in Elkhart actually hear what Obama was saying? "This should be an opportunity for us to retool," he said. That does NOT mean keeping gasoline cheap and returning a whole new fleet of gas-guzzling RVs to the road. Gotta make that RV "green," Fred, so better get out Dino the dinosaur to pull it if you want to go tooling down I-69. But get him started on a dandelion diet, 'cause we need all the corn for ethanol.
