CAULKING CZARS?

Yesterday President Obama gave a speech on the economy where he laid out his “ideas” for further stimulating the economy. So far about half of the original 787 billion dollars has been expended and President Obama wants to add 200 billion more. Obama suggested a fresh round of infrastructure spending and further development of energy saving and weatherization programs. You may recall an earlier blog about a proposed program requiring everyone in America to buy a “license” for their home that would force them to spend money to increase energy efficiency of their homes. Obama went on to say that he is working on developing a program called “Cash for Caulkers”. No, it’s not some sort of perverted sex program, but rather a cash assistance incentive similar to the “Cash for Clunkers” that would give incentives for weatherization.


Less than a week ago President Obama gave a “Jobs” speech where he revealed that Economic Indicators are suggesting a rise in the jobless rate over the next few months to add to the woes of businesses that are already seeing the highest unemployment rate in the last century. Obama said at this speech he didn’t want to increase funding for infrastructure because frankly, the term “Shovel Ready” was not realistic in most cases. When someone made the comment that China was surpassing America economically because of their rapid and more extensive infrastructure work, Obama responded with "The Chinese don't have this thing called democracy we have to deal with -- so shoveling out a whole lot of money, tearing down whatever's there, conscripting folks to do the work is not as tough.”

So what have we heard in the last week from the White House about our worrisome economy? Spend 200 billion more. Do some caulking to save on heat bills. Spend less on infrastructure. Spend more on infrastructure one week later. And most importantly, dream about how we can become more socialist like China so we can “conscript” folks to do the work.

Well at least the bright point is still that those that wanted “change” have indeed received exactly that.