Say Anything Blog

The One is cocksure about it, but Caterpillar itself is a bit more circumspect:

SPRINGFIELD, Va. – President Barack Obama, campaigning to cast his economic plan in terms of real jobs and families, said Wednesday that machinery giant Caterpillar Inc. plans to rehire some of its laid-off workers if Congress approves a sweeping stimulus bill.

The president sought to offer a clear example of how the legislation would help as House and Senate negotiators reached for a final deal with the White House, trimming the emerging legislation down to below $800 billion. That’s still an enormous package, targeted at an economy that continues to bleed jobs.

Buried further down in the article, well after Obama’s assurances about the re-hiring:

Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan said that he had no comment on the president’s account of the company’s plans but did not dispute it either. He said the company did not want to discuss ahead of time what its chairman would say during the president’s visit, but that it looked forward to hosting Obama.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Caterpillar “did communicate to the White House” that it plans to reevaluate its employment situation, particularly in Peoria and downstate Illinois, based on “a big investment that could be coming shortly to put Americans back to work.”

I’m not really sure why this is at all illustrative of the good Obama alleges the “economic stimulus” spending spree would do.  Caterpillar saying they might hire back some laid off workers in exchange to a big, steaming government handout?

Sounds like rent-seeking to me, not stimulus.

And how sustainable is this kind of “stimulus” even if you think it would work?  What happens when Caterpillar’s handout runs out?  Do they lay these people off again?  How is Obama’s stimulus going to generate enough on-going business for Caterpillar to justify hiring back even a significant portion of the people that have been laid off?

It’s not going to do any such thing, which is the problem.  Obama’s making the claim, and Caterpillar isn’t going to make him look like a fool (especially not when it might put some “stimulus” handout money at risk), so the American public is going to get duped.

Hope ‘n change!