President Obama's Big Day

This is, in fact, the pivot point upon which President Obama's re-election depends.  A strong, bold economic plan with significant investment in infrastructure and financial reform that reduces the catastrophic debt overhang facing homeowners is what is needed.  Does the President have the moxie to deliver such a speech in the face of withering criticism from the Tea Party GOP?  Does he have the moxie to deliver more that just a speech, but action?  Is he more than just a good talker?  I don't know anymore.  My "Hope Tank" is hovering just above "E" now.  So much depends on what he says and then what he does.

The Financial Times:

The package should be substantial. Proposals adding up to about $300bn have been mooted: extended cuts in payroll taxes, infrastructure spending, aid to the states to slow their shedding of jobs. This looks far too modest. Tax subsidies for net job creation should be part of the mix. An initiative on housing, with stronger support for principal cuts on distressed mortgages, is needed too, difficult as this may be to design. The Obama administration has long recognised the centrality of housing in the slow recovery, but its measures so far have been timid and administratively messy, and have made little difference.

While I might not agree that $300bn is sufficient, it's better than anything offered by the Tea Party GOP. It certainly is a start.  And once that works, it will allow him to go back for more.

Investment in America is what we need now.  Not austerity.  The Tea Party GOP's broken record of tax cuts, no regulation, tax cuts, no regulation (which, incidentally, nobody believes will produce anything other than greater income inequality) is certainly no answer to our current problems.

The money is free, the labor is available, I can't, for the life of me, understand why this is so hard to see.