Column by Richard Becker

The question over whether President Obama’s recently passed economic stimulus bill was broad enough in scope and properly tailored to the current economic crisis has all but dominated the print, television and online media in recent weeks. To begin with, the Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman wrote in his Monday column in the New York Times that “the White House has decided to muddle through on the financial front” and that “the Obama administration’s economic policies are already falling behind the curve.” These assertions from one of the most widely respected economists on the left side of the political spectrum, combined with just-released data of a national unemployment rate of 8.1 percent combines to paint a picture that is nothing if not deeply worrying.

It would be easy for the American people to become so skittish because of this crisis that they demand action more radical than either the crisis requires or the country can reasonably endure.

More on this later.

It is always difficult in times of crisis to determine whether real progress is being made or whether the news of such progress is simply empty boosterism by those whose political life depends on the success of the given initiative, in this case, the stimulus bill. But, the president and his allies insist, the plan will not only do what it was designed to do, but that it is in fact already working. There is undoubtedly some truth to these assertions.

Gov. Tim Kaine, who in his role as chair of the Democratic National Committee must necessarily be listened to with skepticism, recently shared a story on television of his being able to pass a budget for Virginia which involved far fewer cuts to necessary services in the state as a result of cash that was being pumped into the Commonwealth by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Another salient story is that of the Columbus, Ohio police cadets who recently graduated and had been told some time ago that the city, in needing to cut back its spending on law enforcement, would not be able to hire them right out of the academy. Fortunately for these recent graduates, money was placed in the stimulus bill to save their jobs and get them on the streets of Columbus where they rightfully belong.

But these are just a few stories of jobs and lives saved or helped by the stimulus package; the fact remains that this economic crisis is deep and complex, and its potential solutions must be likewise if we are to steer the ship of state clear of a new Great Depression.

I find myself, however, reluctant to whole-heartedly endorse any course of action, which seeks to in anyway recreate the socio-political structure of government in such a fundamental way as to implement, an entirely new, purely reason-driven scheme of nebulous social progress. The solutions we seek must be limited in focus, broad in scope, responsible in creation, transparent in debate, and prudent in implementation. We mustn’t seek at this juncture to begin the world anew, nor should we seek to use the present crisis as an excuse to overhaul our governmental, political, social or economic structures in any grand fashion.

Despite these misgivings, I have to agree with the growing consensus that the Republicans in Washington are continuing to shoot themselves in the foot with their increasingly erratic behavior. At least half a dozen Republicans in Congress recently stood on national television and called for … wait for it … a spending freeze. Yes, a freeze on all federal spending for the fiscal year while our nation attempts to weather the greatest financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression. I have to call it as I see it and this is simply insanity!

So, as a side note, I would like to ask the College Republicans on UK’s campus if they agree with their leaders in Washington that the best thing for us to do right now to help stem the tide of our crisis is to freeze all government spending. I would hope they would not agree, but if so, I would like to invite them to debate this issue because it’s high time that the minority party be reined in when it comes up with such baldly partisan, harebrained schemes. If that is the best they can come up with after being criticized for having no solutions, then they’re in for a long, slow death spiral over the next few election cycles.

While I do not pretend know what the best course of action will be as we move forward, I do trust the president in his efforts to get the economy moving again and furthermore, I trust the American people to keep the wind at the president’s back as he works on this issue. For in the end, it is only if we are united in purpose that we will be able to see America through this trough and into the brighter days which we can only hope lie just around the bend.