"Bonddad" Says Obama Program Can't Work Because After Bushies U.S. Doesn't Have the Money

Here is an article by Hale "Bonddad" Stewart" that looks at Obama's program and finds it impossible to implement because the U.S. doesn't have the money to spend 210 billion on infrastructure repairs. Stewart blogs about economic matters under the moniker "Bonddad" and started out on Daily Kos and now has his own blog. What's interesting about his entry, though, is this quote:

No candidate will run on a cleaning up the deficit platform. It's not an economic winner -- especially during a period of economic problems. In addition, the way to clean-up the mess -- raising taxes and asking people who benefited from the last 7 years to now pay their fair share of that growth -- is a politically dicey proposition at best. So what is actually in the interest of the country in the long-run just isn't going to work politically.

What Stewart doesn't talk about, though, is that the Bush tax cuts are set to expire in 2010 which is one reason why Republicans talk about making them "permanent" and why they want to inject their extension into the 2008 race. Since those tax-cuts are weighted toward the rich, it would seem that if they are allowed to "expire" as scheduled their expiration would go a long way toward helping us out of deficit problem.

What Obama could be counting on is changing the equation once he is elected so that the political pressure to extend the tax-cuts is not there. Risky perhaps, but interesting.

As a side-note, get this part of his article:

Now -- the Republicans have created a meter on their website to track the increases in government spending. You guys ran the government for 6 years. You had complete control. YOU GOT US INTO THIS MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. SHUT THE HELL UP.

That, by the way, is just about exactly what Obama or Clinton should say to McCain during the debates, assuming that McCain is stupid enough to be seen on the same stage with either of them.