'Catastrophe' language - President imitating Dr Evil

Obama a Mike Myers Fan

I have been wondering where Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi got this stimulus idea from. I thought where could they find a plan like this, so laughable, so ridiculous. Now, I think I have found the source of the Democrats’ inspiration. Not FDR. Not LBJ. No, this plan is so much more Dr. Evil, complete with disaster rhetoric and the demand for ungodly amounts of money. I can see the prensident’s next slogan on his Stimulus Tour:

” We will never recover from this disastrous economy, that is unless of course you pay me one trillion dollars! Muhahahaha! ” - President Obama

USA Today: Obama: 'Catastrophe' if Congress delays stimulus

Excerpt:

President Obama said Wednesday the recession will turn into "a catastrophe" if the federal economic stimulus is not passed quickly, lobbying anew for the plan as its price tag climbed above $900 billion and drew more criticism.

Comment: hyperbole alert!!!

Updated - more from the Wall Street Journal: Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'

Excerpt:

... every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That's a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost -- fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.

...

Repeated warnings from the White House about a coming economic apocalypse aren't likely to raise consumer and investor expectations for the future. In fact, they have contributed to the continuing decline in consumer confidence that is restraining a spending pickup.