Daily Read - 2/17/2010

In the Atlantic, Megan McArdle wonders why, among all the many government actions, the Obama administration is claiming the stimulus is the one that prevented a depression.  Only $287 billion of the $787 billion stimulus has even been spent, according to recovery.gov, and by McArdle's estimation, this can't possibly have added more than about 1% to GDP.  Not insignificant, but certainly not more important than all the other government actions put together, which is what they're claiming.

However, Joe Biden was on CBS's "The Early Show" today saying taxpayers have "gotten their money's worth" from the stimulus because 2 million jobs might have been saved. (AP via Yahoo)  Doing a little math, that works out to $143,500 per job.  That doesn't seem like a good deal to me, but perhaps "one of the least wealthy members of the Senate" thinks that's value for the money.  On the other hand, how many jobs have been destroyed because of fear of government regulation and the future taxes that will be needed to pay for growing government?

President Obama is expected to announce that he will create the "National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform" by executive order today to "to help bring down the federal budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2015, compared with nearly 10% today, and to propose ways to hold down the surging costs of government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security." (WSJ)  Unlike the commission proposed by by Sens. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, and Judd Gregg R-New Hampshire recently, this commission "will not have the power to force Congress to cast politically unpopular votes. So the commission's report could wind up being another blue ribbon panel report that sits on a shelf somewhere, unless there is public pressure for Congress to act on the proposals." (CNN)  The President's logic seems to be that, because voters aren't pressuring Congress enough to spend taxpayer money more wisely, he should create a Commission that has no power, except that derived from voter pressure.  This makes no sense.  Unless, his logic is: I can take credit for being bipartisan and confronting big problems by ordering a commission to discuss the issue until after the next election!  On the positive side, Obama is expected to name Alan K. Simpson, a former Senate Republican leader, and Erskine B. Bowles, a top official in the Clinton White House as chairs of the commission (Washington Post)

Apparently Obama considers nuclear power plants too big to fail.  He announced $8B in Federal loan guarantees for the building of a nuclear power plant, although "Reports by Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office have estimated that the risk of default for new nuclear reactors could be as high as 50 percent."  (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Surprise!  "Audit finds Census preparations wasted millions" (USA Today)