Here’s the just-released report, “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” by Christina Romer, Obama’s nominee-designate for chair of the Council of Economic Advisors and economist Jared Bernstein, office of the Vice President-elect.
The American Prospect‘s Tim Fernholz has some insightful comments in his Tapped post on the Romer-Bernstein report.
The New Republic‘s Jonathan Cohn posts on the concerns of Paul Krugman , James K. Galbraith and Lawrence Summers that the package is too small, while John B. Judis calls for more investment in high-speed rail and international monetary system reform, also in TNR.
Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com mulls over the multiplier effect of 1 percent permanent hikes in tax cuts vs. government spending in Obama’s stimulus package, and makes the case for “maximizing the $500b number as opposed to minimizing the $300b number; the scent of $300b is something that seems to have thrown both sides off the trail.”
The Boston Globe‘s Scott Lehigh argues against the provision for permanent tax cuts in the Obama plan, and The Grey Lady has an editorial making the same point.
Hotline‘s Matthew Gottlieb comments on the differing results in the AllState/Politico poll and the latest Gallup poll regarding public opinion toward Obama’s stimulus plan.
For a perceptive look at the Republican propaganda campaign against the Obama stimulus package, read Sara Robinson’s Alternet (via Campaign for America’s Future) post “10 Absurd Conservative Myths About Obama’s Recovery Plan.”
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich weighs in in his blog on the importance of job training to insure an adequate base of skilled workers to make the Obama stimulus package succeed, while Thomas L. Friedman worries in his New York Times column that, while Obama understands the pivotal importance of education, Congress may not yet get it that education is the key to the plan’s long-range success.