Barack Obama will face a daunting challenge Thursday evening when he attempts to focus the government’s attention away from consolidating the federal budget, and back on to immediate job creation. Here’s a partial list of hurdles: Republicans oppose all new spending, unless it’s offset by cuts to key federal programs; they oppose most of the specific spending measures that experts say would create jobs; many Democrats, scared of their own shadows, won’t support anything that doesn’t have bipartisan support; the public has soured on Keynesian spending policies, and particularly the word “stimulus”; and the White House, quite understandably, doesn’t want to be left fighting for a policy that voters oppose from the outset.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=107539