Stimulus the best hope for stalling out the recession

Today's editorial argues (without great enthusiasm) that mounting a responsible stimulus plan would be a better course for Congress than doing nothing to intervene in our dying economy:

What's the difference between pork-barrel spending and economic stimulus? Economic stimulus is pork-barrel spending with an important purpose: increasing the speed with which money circulates through American communities, thereby thawing their frozen economies and stalling out the recession.

The theory behind economic stimulus, planning for which is now under way in Washington: Well-targeted infusions of government money can mimic bank lending (now mostly frozen), speeding up the movement of money enough to end job losses and revive public confidence in the financial system.

Some readers don't buy this and some do. On this issue, the latter group is well-represented in Washington this week. Today and Wednesday, a bevy of local elected officials and private-side leaders will be meeting there with members of the S.C. congressional delegation, key congressional staff and the federal agencies about directing some stimulus money to our communities. They hope to snag some of the money for local and regional highways, airports, railways, the waterway and the oceanfront.

To many readers, this trip looks no different than past such D.C. junkets in search of pork, and to an extent, that's fair. The doctrine that any federal money snagged for local infrastructure needs can't possibly be pork is well-established in these parts.

So it would be easy to understand why some readers might view this stimulus business - and local leaders' intervention in it - with cynicism. Under the guide of "doing something," it seems, Congress and President Obama are girding to throw as much as a trillion dollars in borrowed money into our distressed national economy.

Once that happens, in this cynical view, many U.S. communities will get facilities they couldn't otherwise afford, and some economic activity they otherwise wouldn't enjoy. But any jobs created will be short-lived. The already considerable national-debt tab presented to future generations will be even larger. And the recession will play out regardless of what the government does.

The alternative view - to which we subscribe - is that Congress and the Obama administration don't dare allow the recession to continue to gobble up jobs, reduce housing values, turn good banks into broken banks and further instill the people with fear. Sure, the economy would bottom out eventually without government intervention. But the human toll along the way could be horrendous. And recovery could take decades.

As things stand now, sad but true, government is the only institution with the power to stave off this future. A carefully crafted package of projects that create jobs immediately and in the future could - could - disrupt the economic spiral that seems, as things stand now, to have no bottom.

That's certainly how it seems at ground level in our communities. The tourism- and development-dependent local economy shed jobs at an alarming pace. Too many local folks despair that they're out of the middle class for good, while fear paralyzes others from investment and consumer spending.

The local leaders in Washington this week have compiled a responsible project wish list with potential to put people to work immediately, set the stage for further local job creation and entice people to invest at the beach. The hope must be they succeed in influencing the stimulus package to our communities' advantage - and that the package itself exerts the desired effects. Better that than waiting passively for things to get worse.

Comments?

The theory behind economic stimulus, planning for which is now under way in Washington: Well-targeted infusions of government money can mimic bank lending (now mostly frozen), speeding up the movement of money enough to end job losses and revive public confidence in the financial system.

Some readers don't buy this and some do. On this issue, the latter group is well-represented in Washington this week. Today and Wednesday, a bevy of local elected officials and private-side leaders will be meeting there with members of the S.C. congressional delegation, key congressional staff and the federal agencies about directing some stimulus money to our communities. They hope to snag some of the money for local and regional highways, airports, railways, the waterway and the oceanfront.

To many readers, this trip looks no different than past such D.C. junkets in search of pork, and to an extent, that's fair. The doctrine that any federal money snagged for local infrastructure needs can't possibly be pork is well-established in these parts.

So it would be easy to understand why some readers might view this stimulus business - and local leaders' intervention in it - with cynicism. Under the guide of "doing something," it seems, Congress and President Obama are girding to throw as much as a trillion dollars in borrowed money into our distressed national economy.

Once that happens, in this cynical view, many U.S. communities will get facilities they couldn't otherwise afford, and some economic activity they otherwise wouldn't enjoy. But any jobs created will be short-lived. The already considerable national-debt tab presented to future generations will be even larger. And the recession will play out regardless of what the government does.

The alternative view - to which we subscribe - is that Congress and the Obama administration don't dare allow the recession to continue to gobble up jobs, reduce housing values, turn good banks into broken banks and further instill the people with fear. Sure, the economy would bottom out eventually without government intervention. But the human toll along the way could be horrendous. And recovery could take decades.

As things stand now, sad but true, government is the only institution with the power to stave off this future. A carefully crafted package of projects that create jobs immediately and in the future could - could - disrupt the economic spiral that seems, as things stand now, to have no bottom.

That's certainly how it seems at ground level in our communities. The tourism- and development-dependent local economy shed jobs at an alarming pace. Too many local folks despair that they're out of the middle class for good, while fear paralyzes others from investment and consumer spending.

The local leaders in Washington this week have compiled a responsible project wish list with potential to put people to work immediately, set the stage for further local job creation and entice people to invest at the beach. The hope must be they succeed in influencing the stimulus package to our communities' advantage - and that the package itself exerts the desired effects. Better that than waiting passively for things to get worse.

Comments?