No, We Can't?

My earlier confusion over Barack Obama's intention in his TV appearance tonight appears to be resolved — as I understand it, he will make a statement to the nation, then he will take questions from members of the press.

So it's going to be a floor wax and a dessert topping.

But I'm not expecting much.

For all of Obama's conciliatory efforts, how many Republicans in the Congress have said they will support the economic stimulus package — even when tax cuts (the real sacred cow for the GOP) are thrown into the mix? And in spite of clear evidence that something must be done?

And, unless I am misreading his column today, Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist and columnist for the New York Times, isn't encouraged by the Senate compromise, of which Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson spoke in such glowing terms a few days ago.

"Even if the original Obama plan... had been enacted," Krugman writes, "it wouldn't have been enough to fill the looming hole in the U.S. economy, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will amount to $2.9 trillion over the next three years."

And the cuts that were agreed to only make it "weaker and worse," Krugman says.

Here are a few excerpts from his column. You should read the whole thing:

• "One of the best features of the original plan was aid to cash-strapped state governments, which would have provided a quick boost to the economy while preserving essential services. But the centrists insisted on a $40 billion cut in that spending."


• "The original plan also included badly needed spending on school construction; $16 billion of that spending was cut."


• "It included aid to the unemployed, especially help in maintaining health care — cut. Food stamps — cut."

"All in all, more than $80 billion was cut from the plan," Krugman says, "with the great bulk of those cuts falling on precisely the measures that would do the most to reduce the depth and pain of this slump."

Meanwhile, Krugman writes, the compromise did nothing about "one of the worst provisions in the Senate bill, a tax credit for home buyers." This provision, he says, "will cost a lot of money while doing nothing to help the economy."

If tax cuts are the answer, as the Republicans always contend, why are millions of Americans losing their jobs? Why are millions losing their homes? Republicans held the White House for the last eight years. Tax cuts were enacted. Shouldn't we be seeing the benefits they promised?

For that matter, if deregulation is such a wonderful thing, why are we dealing with salmonella from peanut butter?

This compromise, says Krugman, has led to legislation that will result in "comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted ... lead[ing] to substantially lower employment and substantially more suffering."

Maybe I was wrong, but I thought Obama was elected because people believed he would bring an end to the through-the-looking-glass approach to government that was a hallmark of the Bush years. I see less evidence of that as the days go by.

Krugman says Obama's "belief that he can transcend the partisan divide" is to blame. He says that belief has "warped his economic strategy."

Essentially, Krugman writes, Obama sold out those who expected "a really strong stimulus plan" in a misguided effort to achieve bipartisanship. Thus far, the president has gained not one Republican vote in exchange — not in the Senate, not in the House.

What's more, Krugman says, "[e]arly indications aren't good" that Obama has learned from the experience.

Obama has an opportunity tonight to re-establish himself and take a firm stance that reassures the people who have been hurt by the recession that he really is on their side. He can go over the heads of the Rush Limbaugh acolytes in the Senate, lay it on the line for the senators, urge the voters to contact their senators and insist that they pass an economic stimulus package that really helps.

We're wasting valuable time on this. Frankly, it is obscene for the same senators who gave the go-ahead to the unending war in Iraq — and its immense price tag — to complain about the high cost of repairing the American economy. I hope Obama will use the bully pulpit appropriately tonight, but I don't have a lot of confidence that he will.

So we the people may have to do it ourselves. Contact your senators. You can find e-mail addresses, Washington office addresses and phone numbers for your state's senators at this website. Contact them and tell them you demand action. Not just action — action that will do some real good for real people who are really hurting.

And tell them you will remember what they do when it is your turn to vote.