Obama still losing out on the economy

In spite of Obama's recent jobs summit and news that the worst of the recession is over, the public continues to show dissatisfaction with Obama's efforts to improve the economy. With his approval ratings now at all time low, a conversation is brewing within the Democratic Party over whether to spend money on job creation or wait to pay down the deficit. According to an article in the NYTimes today, it seems for now Democrats are planning to talk up deficit reduction in 2010 but will hold off on any serious action until after midterm elections.

Even today, the president's chief economic advisor Larry Summers announced that he is predicting that the U.S. will see job growth by this spring. While Summers' outlook on the economy seems upbeat, a fantastic op-ed by Paul Krugman attempts to outline how many jobs must actually be created to get the economy back to where it was. Krugman, who is decidedly less optimistic than Summers, predicts another 5+ years of slow recovery.

Also, the slowdown in progress on the healthcare bill that was supposed to be complete by Christmas but now may be finalized closer to Valentine's Day has given the media an opportunity to look back at the effectiveness of Obama's stimulus package. Matt Taibbi wrote a particularly scathing feature article for Rolling Stone in which he accuses Obama of more or less being in bed with Wall Street. A video narrated by Taibbi summarizing the article can also be found here.