A Second Area Of Obama Policy Is Open To Second Thoughts

Yesterday, I posted regarding 3 Middle East experts who advised Obama to abandon his aggressive approach to the Middle East in view of a much more modest plan.

Now there are indications that economic experts are having second thoughts about the stimulus package itself as a path towards economic recovery:

Japan’s rural areas have been paved over and filled in with roads, dams and other big infrastructure projects, the legacy of trillions of dollars spent to lift the economy from a severe downturn caused by the bursting of a real estate bubble in the late 1980s. During those nearly two decades, Japan accumulated the largest public debt in the developed world — totaling 180 percent of its $5.5 trillion economy — while failing to generate a convincing recovery. Now, as the Obama administration embarks on a similar path, proposing to spend more than $820 billion to stimulate the sagging American economy, many economists are taking a fresh look at Japan’s troubled experience. . . . Among ordinary Japanese, the spending is widely disparaged for having turned the nation into a public-works-based welfare state and making regional economies dependent on Tokyo for jobs. Much of the blame has fallen on the Liberal Democratic Party, which has long used government spending to grease rural vote-buying machines that help keep the party in power.

Experience is a good teacher for correcting mistakes.

If the current atmosphere continues, people are going to feel the same way about the November elections.

[Hat tip: Instapundit]

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