President Obama tried to have it both ways on the faltering economy yesterday, encouraging lots of new spending on public works while also vowing to pay down the ballooning deficit.
Obama insisted he wasn’t making contradictory proposals as he suggested the country must “spend our way out of this recession.”
The federal bailout of banks is costing taxpayers — at a minimum — $200 billion less than initially thought, Obama said.
It “gives us a chance to pay down the deficit faster than we thought possible and to shift funds that would have gone to help the banks on Wall Street to help create jobs on Main Street,” he said.
But Republicans slammed Obama, saying leftover Troubled Asset Relief Program cash should be used solely to pay down the deficit.
The move “is further proof that TARP has morphed from an emergency injection of liquidity to thaw frozen credit markets into a $700 billion revolving slush fund to promote the Democrats’ political, social and economic agenda,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).
Obama insisted his measures, which also include fresh tax breaks for small businesses, “will generate the greatest number of jobs while generating the greatest value for our economy,” he said.