Paulson Redux: Quick Passage Of Stimulus Or Else . . .

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It would seem that Barack Obama has taken a page from Hank Paulson's book of economic persuasion. I don't believe he's yet hinted at martial law, or in a state of childlike panic, blurted out "this sucker could go down", but the rush is on to pimp the stimulus post haste. This seems to be habit forming among presidents as of late. What with Bush's preemptive rush to take out Saddam before he unleashed his arsenal of WMDs and his recent hysterics warning of an economic apocalypse, it would appear that Obama has caught on rather quickly. A sober assessment of the situation now takes a back seat to executive blustering and extortion.

Obama said he wants to sign a bill approving his economic stimulus package—now put at about $775 billion over two years—shortly after taking office Jan. 20. He took the time to personally push the proposal Monday, meeting with top leaders on Capitol Hill in an effort to forge bipartisan support for the deal that some Republicans are now questioning. "It is clear that we have to act and we have to act now to address this crisis and break the momentum of the recession, or the next few years could be dramatically worse," he said.

And the real fun hasn't even started yet. Should be interesting to see what kind of demands are made by a president who's already staring down the barrel at a first term presidency and how those demands are met by a nation undergoing severe credit withdrawal. I imagine about the time we hit 1 million unemployed, the president will say just about anything and the people will roll over for whatever he's peddling.