Stimulating The Stimulus? Yes, We Can

Dean Baker has some thoughts on Obama’s stimulus package, check them out at truthout. He has seven ideas for making the package better, but his advice comes with a zinger.

President Obama could not find any economists who were able to see the housing bubble for his economic team. Fortunately, he indicated that he would be willing to listen to those of us who did in designing his stimulus package.”

Ouch. Yet fair, isn’t it?

His suggestions are: to extend health insurance with a tax credit for businesses who cover employees who don’t have health insurance; to start publicly funding clinical trials of new drugs (this dude is RAD!); to pay a premium for old, fuel-inefficient cars; to create subsidies for public transportation (do we ever need this around here!); to fund art/writing projects (like, for bloggers?); to fund open software (I love Mozilla!); and, finally, to expand vacation and leave for workers (if I had a job, I’d be so into this).

It’s ambitious, but sounds great, no? A lot better than just a bunch of heavy construction projects. Although, if we funded some day-care centers around all those infrastructure jobs, more women would enjoy the benefits of the stimulus package, and more families would get a much needed service. I can’t be the only one who’s thought of that. Whatever happens, it needs to move us forward, not just back to the status quo. As Baker puts it, “We should not be trying to just bring the economy back to where it was before the housing bubble crashed. Rather, we should be looking to create a cleaner, fairer, better country.”