For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: the stimulus, one year in.
So the battle will rage all day, and then all year. Bottom line: Obama, Biden, and Democrats on Capitol Hill can talk all they want about the stimulus' supposed benefits, but it won't do them any good until the unemployment rate begins to go down and continues to go down -- not a month or two of declines, but a consistent pattern of decline to a level at which the public feels things are definitely getting better. To that end, the White House is touting a new column by the New York Times' David Leonhardt who confidently reports "the jobless rate is now expected to begin falling consistently by the end of this year." If that happens, the administration will get credit. If it doesn't, no annual report will convince Americans things are better. And even in the best scenario, it's not clear whether any improvement would come quickly enough to help Democrats in November's elections.
Then the question becomes, are you better off than you were four trillion dollars ago?
