COMMENT The fiscal plan that emerged from Congress this week and which President Barack Obama expects to sign on Monday is impossible to love. It is sprawling and incoherent. Many of its provisions are difficult to defend either as stimulus measures or as wise public investments. Despite its size of roughly $800bn, it provides less of an early jolt to the economy than it should. The manoeuvres that produced it often descended to political black comedy: Congress conveyed an impression of division and incompetence that must damp any boost to public confidence and further lessen the measure’s impact.
Nonetheless, it may be the best that could be done, and is a great deal better than nothing. Even if it cannot be admired, it deserves a qualified welcome.
