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David Brooks has a very bad column on the stimulus legislation today. The best part is his decision to rely on statements made by Larry Summers last September, well before we had an understanding of the depth of the economic crisis. Perhaps if congress and the Bush administration had followed Summers' advice then, we wouldn't have the larger problems we have now. But we have gained a greater understanding of the depth of the crisis in the last five months, which is why Summers' advice has changed. But for Brooks' disingenuous purposes, five month-old quotes work just about right.In any case: No, David, the legislation doesn't create permanent spending programs, it just boosts funding for existing programs in order to provide the most effective fiscal stimulus. No, David, it isn't too slow, as somewhere between 64 and 75 percent of the money will be spent in the next eighteen months, and no, David, the additional funding that will go out in fiscal 2011 and after isn't a waste, it is necessary because we will still be in a recession. And the administration does have plans to address both the financial and housing crises, it has also articulated its concerns about medium- and long-term fiscal responsibility, which apparently you have not bothered to learn about. Maybe my favorite part of the column is this line:
As readers may know, the policy I am most passionate about is pre-K education. Yet I fervently hope that the Head Start expansion is dropped from this bill. A slapdash and shambolic expansion could discredit the whole idea.Oh, sure. Expanding an incredibly well-understood, successful and broadly popular 43-year old program -- at a time when doing so would have important economic ramifications for the low-income people it serves and create jobs -- is a terrible idea.
-- Tim Fernholz
