Obama Promises an Additional 500,000 Jobs

President-elect Obama has challenged his economic team to find a new plan that will create an additional 500,000 to his original goal of 2.5 million. Although Obama has not given specifics on how he will accomplish this he has stated that any economic recovery is going to be expensive. Possibly costing between $650 billion to $775 billion. Ironically, while Obama is talking about massive deficit spending to cure economic woes, some other politicians are taking a different road.

From CNN,

CNN-The officials said Obama is increasing his goal from 2.5 million to 3 million jobs over the next two years after receiving projections early this week that suggest the recession will be deeper than expected.The projections showed that unless significant action is taken, the nation is likely to lose up to 4 million jobs over the next year and that the unemployment rate will probably rise above 9 percent, a transition aide told CNN.

After hearing the projections, Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden "argued that we were being too timid and that we needed to develop a plan that would save or create at least 3 million jobs," the aide said. Read more…

Democratic aides would not put an exact price tag on any plans that they will be implementing, but said it could be approved by the President-elect as soon as Inauguration Day. Read more…

Since harldy anything in the world is free, the President-elect's plan comes with quite a hefty price to taxpayers. One which we could see as early as Inauguration day.

CNN-The Obama team isn't putting a price tag on its economic stimulus plan, which Democratic leaders want to have ready for the president-elect to sign either on or very soon after Inauguration Day. The transition aide told CNN that Obama aides met with Capitol Hill staff this week to discuss plans costing between $675 billion and $775 billion.

While the Obama team is planning on throwing good money out with the bad , some state and city officials are trying to curb spending.

From My Way,

DETROIT (AP) - The mayor of Detroit says the city's deficit is approaching $300 million and he has ordered all departments to reduce their budgets by 10 percent.

Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. said in a statement Friday that new problems are being discovered daily regarding the finances and financial reporting practices of the administration of his predecessor, Kwame Kilpatrick.

He says the discoveries confirm that Kilpatrick "misled Detroiters and misled City Council." Read more…

Even Governor Schwarzenegger is getting in on the cutting spending mentality.

From Bloomberg,

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today ordered all state workers to take two days of unpaid leave each month to conserve money amid a record budget deficit and a legislative impasse over how to fix it. Read more…

The economic stimulus plan Obama has been touting, supposedly will generate jobs by upgrading government buildings, weatherizing 1 million homes, massive infrastructure rebuilding projects, doubling renewable energy sources, and upgrading computers in public schools. Once passed, the second stimulus package will increase the budget deficit to almost $2 trillion dollars, with no end to spending in sight.

Of course, everyone has heard the President-elect remark that this is a new and fresh approach. And that we cannot rely on the "traditional" Washington ways.

CNN-Obama also stressed to the team that it can't rely on "traditional Washington programs and politics" when drawing up the economic recovery package, the aide said. That means no earmarks, a use-it-or-lose-it policy for local funding, full transparency and "investing in what works," the aide added.

Unfortunately for Obama, his plan smacks of Keynesianism and is hardly fresh. In fact, this is almost identical to the economic plan used by FDR during the Great Depression. The very same economic thought which prolonged the Depression for about 7 extra years.