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Obama Signs Stimulus Bill: A Second In The Offing?

Posted by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief in Economy, Politics.
Feb 17th, 2009 | Comments

President Barack Obama signed the landmark economic stimulus bill. But is the groundwork being laid for a second one? Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs wouldn’t rule out a Stimulus The Sequel.

Here are Obama’s comments in Denver today. A realist? Or a politician starting to cover his bases (or something else of his)? We embed. You decide:

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Meanwhile, Wall Street doesn’t seem hugely reassured:

Stocks tumbled Tuesday on fears that the government’s efforts to slow the recession won’t be enough – even as President Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill into law.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 297 points, or about 3.8% according to early tallies, ending just above the bear market closing low of Nov. 20, 2008.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) index lost 37 points, or about 4.6% and also touched its lowest point since Nov. 21st. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 63 points, or about 4.1%. The Nasdaq has performed better than the rest of the market and has held above its bear-market lows.

President Obama signed into law the $787 billion stimulus bill Tuesday afternoon. Both chambers of Congress approved the bill last week, largely along party lines. The stimulus package includes at least $290 billion in tax provisions, as well as billions in aid and spending.

On Wednesday, the president is expected to announce a plan to modify home loans – a move seen as critical to stemming foreclosures and helping to limit the pace of the housing slowdown.

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DLS

"A realist? Or a politician starting to cover his bases"

B.

This bill was lousy. The only real achievement was that he had something before him to sign, and signed it. The bill is bad, and why ask if there will be another bill, when obviously another one was long anticipated even before this lousy bill eventually materialized?

I just hope they learn something from the consequences of this bill as well as the experiences with getting it written and passed. As for those consequences, we'll have to sit and wait to learn and live through them.

[sigh]

casualobserver

The stock market is down because the people getting the stimulus money are now able to cover more margin call and short the market even more.

jeburke

Solving the banking crisis was and is the crucial step, not the stimulus, which has so much stuff that won't impact for 12 or 18 or 24 months that two or three weeks more to rol that out would hardly matter (might have made it better and curtailed some of the criticisms).

So why did they not prioritize better>? beats me, but let's hope that "take 2" of the bank plan is smart, well-thought through and designed to restore confidence, shore up banks and get credit moving.

http://thepurplecenter.blogspot.com/

AustinRoth

A second stimulus bill (aka Pork II). I predicted it, but even I thought they would wait at least a year to shovel more pork, bloat, entitlement spending and debt at the American taxpayer.

This is insane. We are headed towards hyper-inflation and complete economic collapse if we stay on this path. My worst 'paranoid' fears for the next 2 - 5 years are already starting to look instead like they were best-case scenarios.

DaGoat

I listened to the speech/signing on XM radio and it was kind of surreal to hear the cheering and jubilation over a spending bill designed to moderate a recession.

Don Quijote

This is insane. We are headed towards hyper-inflation and complete economic collapse if we stay on this path.

Lets see, 46 out of 50 States are in the red, the Banking System is insolvent, the real unemployment rate is at 13.9% and the household net worth has only declined by $2.81 trillion, so lets cut some more taxes, sit back and see how long it takes before the guillotines come out.

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