Back from the brink

8 December 2009 By James Pethokoukis

The US president’s new jobs program is Scroogelike compared with the expensive splurge congressional Democrats and liberal groups wanted. It’s a sign that Obama has rightly decided that ignoring the yawning budget deficit would act against economic and employment growth.

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President Barack Obama on Dec. 8 proposed small business tax cuts, fresh infrastructure spending and energy efficiency rebates to boost jobs, but there were few details on the scale or cost of the measures. Obama also called for an extension of unemployment and health insurance benefits for the more than 15 million outofwork Americans.

"There are those who claim we have to choose between paying down our deficits on the one hand, and investing in job creation and economic growth on the other. But this is a false choice," Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. He said he was still committed to halving the deficit we inherited by the end of my first term.

A senior administration official said around $50 billion of fresh money would be earmarked for spending on roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure, and the money would be spent over the course of a year. But there was little detail on the cost of the other proposals, which will be shaped in conjunction with Congress, meaning it could be a while before the price tag is known.

Obama said some of the money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which is expected to cost about $200 billion less than previously thought, will be used to pay down the record U.S. budget deficit and the program will be wound down.

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