The new president has to find a way to pull the United States out of its deepest economic decline since the Great Depression.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s entire presidency may depend on it. Pollsters say that nothing else matters as much to the American people.
So far, the plan is stimulus, with tax cuts and spending that will range from banks to bridges. The Congress has agreed to give him $350 billion US left over from the Bush administration. This week, another crucial vote in Congress took him a step closer to getting at least another $825 billion US.
That’s more than a trillion dollars. But will it work? And when?
The U.S. economy is so big that a trillion dollars may not be enough to turn it around. And even if it does, it may take a year or more.
Obama is betting that his administration will spend enough money, in enough of the right ways, to succeed fast enough to keep the support of the American people.
The truth is, it’s not entirely a gamble, it’s an imperative. He has no choice.
