President Elect Barack Obama gave an extended interview to CNBC today. Much of the interview focused on the economy and the stimulus package. The full transcript is here. The size of the stimulus package was discussed in this exchange:
HARWOOD: It looks like it’s going to be at the high end of your range, around $775 billion.
Pres.-elect OBAMA: That’s correct.
HARWOOD: If it’s correct that, as your aides have said, the danger is doing too little rather than doing too much…
Pres.-elect OBAMA: Right.
HARWOOD: …why stop at $775 billion? Why not go to the $1.2 trillion that some economists have recommended? …
Pres.-elect OBAMA: Well, first of all I think it’s important to note that every economist, conservative or liberal, at this point agrees that we have to have a substantial recovery plan that helps to jump-start the economy, that short term it’s going to be expensive, but it would be much more expensive to see the economy continue in the tailspin that it’s been going in. We’ve seen ranges from 800 to 1.3 trillion and our attitude was that given the legislative process, if we start towards the low end of that, we’ll see how it develops. We are concerned…
HARWOOD: It’s going to get bigger.
Pres.-elect OBAMA: Well, we don’t know yet. But what we are concerned about is making sure that the money is spent wisely, that there’s oversight, that there’s transparency… (emphasis mine)
Transparency and oversight are great but what’s this nonsense about starting at the low end and negotiating up? Didn’t Obama just yesterday say:
“he will not allow Congress to attach any of those earmarks — lawmaker’s pet projects — to the stimulus bill.”
If no “pork,” “pet projects” or “earmarks” are added to the bill, and Barack has done his homework, how would the stimulus bill grow by up to 80% from what Obama is proposing? Maybe Obama is taking Harry Reid to heart when he was quoted as saying:
I will tell him. "¦ I do not work for Barack Obama.
