GOOD NEWS FOR OBAMA

It’s growth time in the United States. If statistics are to be believed, the rate of unemployment has come down and the economy has flexed itself to offer more jobs to the youth and, especially to those in the vocational trends.

This is a positive indicator and inadvertently has prompted President Barack Obama to challenge Congress to keep the pace of growth going on.

Irrespective of the fact of what the real picture is as far as beating sluggishness is concerned, and how prospective the stimulus-led policies have been on the economy — a quarter-million new jobs is a feather in the cap for the administration.

The Democrats are set to sell it as an achievement in all adversity and reflect it as a leadership moment for Obama. This is why the Republicans are busy crossing swords, trying to portray that the economy would

-- The Khaleej Times have done better even in the absence of the sitting incumbent in the White House. But how such a kneejerk statement is going to sell is difficult to answer! The fact is the Republicans had made life miserable for the Obama’s economic team — thwarting all of its moves from extending the social welfare network to spending more on Medicaid. So was the case in planning for a trillion dollar budget deficit cut over the next decade. It has boiled down to an equation of shutting the government, as budgetary allocations were hard to come by. From the point of

Republicanshadmade life miserable for the Obama’seconomicteam—thwarting all of its moves from extending the social welfare network to spending moreonmedicaid.sowasthecase in planning for a trillion dollar budgetdeficitcutoverthenext decade.fromthepointofmesstoa somewhatsmoothsailing,obama deserves credit in all humility.

mess to a somewhat smooth sailing, Obama deserves credit in all humility. Notwithstanding how and what plan of action the Democrats may have to make a difference in their second-term of presidency, they need to spell out an agenda that revolves around stimulus and spending spree. The capitalist economy can’t be cajoled for long, and a new private-public sector deal in the aftermath of the Wall Street fiasco is now indispensable.

The promising aspect is that the US has registered growth and been successful in, at least, creating an impression that its bailout and regulations policies are responding. This is from where Europe and Asian economies have to find a clue and jumble up their projections for a collective goodwill bargain.

It goes without saying that the numbers presented by the Democrats may be complex or even fudged, as per the GOP estimates, but they aren’t being contested. The growth sentiment is there and it needs to be refurbished.