Obama and Boehner Diverge Sharply on Fiscal Plan

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/politics/obama-says-republicans-given-fair-deal.html?_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine <levinebar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 8:25 AM
Subject: re: Obama and Boehner Diverge Sharply on Fiscal Plan
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The U.S. has survived as many as forty-seven recessions over our history. Many of them were spurred by financial crises. What is novel in the recession of 2008 is that Wall Street has been propped up without fixing the problem.  Behind secretary Geithner's Potempkin economy, federal aid programs are still straining to keep many Americans from starvation.

     Until he discards the Geithner narrative that we have recovered, president Obama can't fully answer speaker Boehner's calls for austerity.  It is overdue that president Obama use his pulpit to explain to the American people that our economy is still weak and will remain weak until there is a surge is spending. Barring a war, or supernatural intervention, that spending must come from Federal stimulus. Between a policy of stimulus and a policy of austerity, compromise isn't a virtue. It is continued paralysis.

Barry Haskell Levine