What Obama should have done in 2009

[President von Cat]

Isn't Sean Trende just one of those Republican hacks on RCP who tries to use stats and mathematical prowess to hide his hackery? A somewhat classier, less enraging Jay Cost.

[President von Cat]

Meh, I disagree. I think deficit reduction as a whole has been a dumb idea for the past year, since we're still not out of the economic hole. Premature austerity has undermined US economic growth, and pretty much tanked a bunch of European economies.

What Obama should have done in 2011 was advocate government spending to stimulate demand, warning that cutting off stimulus would result in stagnant, start-stop growth. Could have had a big 'told you so' by now.

Its not that I'm unfazed by the deficit, but I think it should be a focus on economic growth in the short term and deficit reduction in the long term. It seems like Republicans want to focus on deficit reduction in the short term, which is hurting economic growth in the short and long term.