Paul Krugman wrote a pretty alarming post today about the president's proposed spending freeze, and ended with this:
Now, I still cling to a fantasy: maybe, just possibly, Obama is going to tie his spending freeze to something that would actually help the economy, like an employment tax credit. (No, trivial tax breaks don’t count). There has, however, been no hint of anything like that in the reports so far. Right now, this looks like pure disaster.
I tend to follow along with Krugman mainly because I'm an economic novice, and he's, well, you know. That said, I don't know if it's a "disaster" yet, because there are, in fact, employment tax credits being proposed by the White House today.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's push to create jobs includes a new tax credit for small businesses that add employees, an idea that has appeal as the nation struggles with an unemployment rate topping 10 percent.
I think this fulfills Krugman's fantasy.