On Sunday, Larry Summers and David Axelrod talked about the president's recovery proposal, which Summers, writing in the Washington Post, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. (That's the first time I've seen the transition put a name on the evolving plan.)
Investments in an array of areas -- including energy, education, infrastructure and health care -- offer the potential of extraordinarily high social returns while allowing our country to address some long-standing national challenges and put our economy on a solid footing for years to come.
Those are four of the areas that the New York Times reported in a Dec. 21 article as areas that Obama staffers had identified as targets for stimulus and tax cuts.
On "Meet the Press," Axelrod answered questions about Hamas (one president at a time) and Blagojevich (we've said what we're going to say) before talking about the economy. Axelrod reinforced the Summers op-ed.
So we're talking about investing in alternative energy projects that will help us achieve energy independence. We're talking about rebuilding the nation's classrooms to bring them into the 21st century, and labs and libraries so our kids can compete. Health: In the area of health, IT, so that we can computerize medical records, which will cut costs, reduce errors and improve, and improve care. And of course, infrastructure -- rebuilding our crumbling bridges and roads and waterways. These are things that will put people to work, but also that will strengthen our economy in the long run, and that's where we're focusing our attention.
Axelrod said no decision had been made about whether to repeal the Bush tax cuts in 2009 or let them expire in 2010.
Well, look, the question is on the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans, and it's something that we plainly can't afford moving forward. And whether it, it, it expires or whether we repeal it a little bit early we'll determine later, but it's going to go. It has to go.
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