The government is talking about sacrifice and solutions, but it hasn't yet made the tough decisions that will put the economy back together. Economist David Smick had it right in The Post this week when he said the administration had a three-pronged strategy: delay, delay and delay. The administration announces a rescue package but doesn't deliver details; it promises budget discipline but saves the hard decisions for later.
One reason this season feels so political is that Obama has stacked his administration with politicians and former government officials. You might think that with the greatest financial crisis of his lifetime, the president would want a few business leaders with experience managing large organizations in crisis. But no.
Ignatius wonders why the Administration is so reliant on government officials instead of business, but stops short of the obvious answer: the Administration doesn't want to hear from business because it wants to impose more government onto business. This is an Administration that claims the cause of this current crisis is too much deregulation, ergo, the solution is to bring back more government regulation. The Administration doesn't care about the market, not that the previous administration did all that much for the market either. The administration's answer to nearly every question so far is that only government can solve these problems; that's why his administration is filled with career government officials.
Course, it doesn't help that he keeps having potential appointees withdrawing- today it's H. Rodgin Cohen, who was going to be nominated as Deputy Treasury Secretary. This is getting ridiculous.
By the way, this is awesome:
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