Obama Offers Stimulus Lite

President Barack Obama's much-anticipated plan for putting Americans back to work turns out to be a scaled-down version of his original stimulus package, which is well on its way to becoming one of the most monumental economic policy failures in the nation's history.

In 2009, the neo-Keynesians who advise the president on economic matters convinced him to spend nearly $1 trillion on public works projects, grants to states and local governments, selected tax cuts, liberal social priorities and green industry handouts.

The promise from Obama was that the massive spending jolt would shock the nation out of the deepest recession since World War II, take unemployment below 8 percent and produce robust and sustained growth.

Today, the economy is struggling to maintain a barely 1 percent annual growth rate, unemployment has risen to 9.1 percent and 2.4 million more jobs have disappeared.

The country is desperate for a new course. Yet the president's response is to throw good money after bad.

In a speech delivered with a partisan tinge better suited for the campaign trail, he said he would send to Congress next week a bill estimated to cost another $450 billion. The large price tag comes despite the public's growing aversion to debt and deficits.

Part of the new money will save teachers and other public workers from layoffs. Much of the first stimulus was spent for that purpose, allowing state and local governments to avoid fixing their operating costs.

He is also asking for yet another extension in unemployment insurance benefits, despite numerous studies — including one by his new chief economic adviser — that suggest such extensions discourage job searching.

Obama also wants to spend more taxpayer dollars on infrastructure projects — new roads, bridges and schools — that were supposed to be built by the first stimulus but weren't.

A centerpiece of the president's proposal is a $4,000 tax break for small businesses that hire the long-term unemployed.

Employers worried about the impact of regulations, rising energy prices, the uncalculated cost of Obamacare and an inability to get loans won't add employees just to get the tax break.

The president rightly called on Congress to pass trade pacts with Columbia, Panama and South Korea, but neglected to mention that Democrats are holding up the bills to get a payoff for labor unions.

The president would also expand the cut in payroll taxes, without regard to the impact on Social Security's viability or the fact that it hasn't worked to boost consumer confidence.

Likewise, Obama will meddle further in the housing market, even though the billions spent haven't helped.

As always, Obama will pay for it by raising taxes on upper middle class and wealthy taxpayers, and certain corporations. Given how poorly the first stimulus was spent, billionaire Warren Buffett (cited in the speech) would do more good spending his own money than giving it to the government to squander.

This is not what job creators asked for. They told the president they wanted relief from the stifling regulations his administration has put in place, stable energy supplies, an easing of the credit markets, more visas for skilled workers and a reform of uncompetitive corporate taxes.

Aside from a half-hearted pledge to visit the corporate tax rate, they got none of that.

Instead, Obama offered the same ideas that have failed to stimulate the economy. And now, he is challenging Republicans in Congress to rally to this warmed-over plate of failure or take the blame for the economic malaise.

As a re-election strategy, this may be Obama's best hope of avoiding responsibility for where his leadership has brought us. But it won't put Americans back to work.

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