Chrysler sales fall 53%, Obama meets the press, and more

By GottaLaff

Liveblogging, plus reporting some odds and ends:

MSNBC is reporting that Chrysler's December U.S. sales fell 53% from last year. Happy days are here again.

Jonathan Alter: Obama spoke to the press about his Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to create 3 million new jobs, $650-750 billion dollars, 1.5 trillion new dollars that are planned to be spent if you add the previous plans (TARP, for example). Obama wants to save "a terribly sick economy" and must spend huge amounts of money.

Obama wants to post online, parts of the stimulus package as they are implemented, to have some transparency.

According to Krugman:

Let’s not mince words: This looks an awful lot like the beginning of a second Great Depression. [...]

News reports say that Democrats hope to pass an economic plan with broad bipartisan support. Good luck with that.

In reality, the political posturing has already started, with Republican leaders setting up roadblocks to stimulus legislation while posing as the champions of careful Congressional deliberation — which is pretty rich considering their party’s behavior over the past eight years.

More broadly, after decades of declaring that government is the problem, not the solution, not to mention reviling both Keynesian economics and the New Deal, most Republicans aren’t going to accept the need for a big-spending, F.D.R.-type solution to the economic crisis.

The biggest problem facing the Obama plan, however, is likely to be the demand of many politicians for proof that the benefits of the proposed public spending justify its costs — a burden of proof never imposed on proposals for tax cuts.

All of this leaves me concerned about the prospects for the Obama plan. I’m sure that Congress will pass a stimulus plan, but I worry that the plan may be delayed and/or downsized. And Mr. Obama is right: We really do need swift, bold action.

Here’s my nightmare scenario: It takes Congress months to pass a stimulus plan, and the legislation that actually emerges is too cautious. As a result, the economy plunges for most of 2009, and when the plan finally starts to kick in, it’s only enough to slow the descent, not stop it. Meanwhile, deflation is setting in, while businesses and consumers start to base their spending plans on the expectation of a permanently depressed economy — well, you can see where this is going.

So this is our moment of truth. Will we in fact do what’s necessary to prevent Great Depression II?

Obama wants to move more aggressively than FDR did in 1933, per Alter.

Side bar: For National Intelligence Director, Obama is naming Admiral Dennis Blair. You already know about Leon Panetta.