Stop beating up on straw men arguments

President Obama, in his press conference yesterday, kept saying that he disagreed with those who say that we should do nothing in this economic crisis. But his opponents in the GOP caucus aren't arguing to do nothing. There are a few people who have argued that, but I don't know of any Republican congressmen who have argued that. They agree with doing something to stimulate the economy and have put forward their own stimulus ideas. So Obama starts off with beating up on straw men arguments. That's always an easy victory, but it's dishonest.

Instead, he glossed over the substance of the bill and the CBO analysis that most of the spending will take place after 2009. He complained about the deficit that he'd been left, but then proposes to fix the problem by more spending and doubling or tripling that deficit.

He outsourced the bill to the House Democrats and then passively accepted the changes that the three GOP senators forced in order to get their votes. So instead of focusing on what he had actually promised to put in the stimulus with about 40% in tax cuts and the spending to be, as Larry Summers promised timely, targeted, and temporary, he is in the position of having to defend a bill that he didn't write and doesn't match his priorities. For example, the WSJ points out that he had promised a cut in capital gains taxes for small businesses, but the House Democrats broke out in a metaphorical rash at anything that smacked of capital gains tax cuts and refused to put it in.

So what happened? We're told the obstacle is House Democrats, who oppose any cut in capital gains tax rates. The objection seems to be wholly ideological, a concern that such a cut -- even for start-ups, rather than for current capital holdings -- would validate Republican tax-cutters. The White House decided not to fight Democrats to add the President's own pro-growth idea to a bill whose supposed purpose is to promote growth. This looks like an early example of Mr. Obama repeating a mistake that President Bush made too often -- refusing to challenge a Congress run by his own party.

Obama was also dishonest in saying that the debates about the efficacy of the New Deal is settled history. Er, no. There are quite a few historians and economists who have challenged the conventional wisdom about how well the government programs addressed the Great Depression and even exacerbated the problems. Check out Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man, Jim Powell's FDR's Folly, Gene Smiley's Rethinking the Great Depression, or Burton Folsom's New Deal or Raw Deal. Barack Obama has said that he wants to craft a stimulus removed from ideology and just based on what works, but he's refusing to admit that there are legitimate criticisms of his plans.

I wish that someone last night had, instead of perhaps wasting a question on A-Rod's steroid use (talk about a softball!) had asked him about the CBO report on the stimulus package and the long-term damage to the economy.