Big Obama and "Stimulus"* supporter Brad Delong has a major concern with Obama's Porkfest: the "Buy American" content.
In addition to being bad economics, demonstrating in his first month that the Obama Administration's word is not good--that it will keep treaties only when it feels like doing so--would be a very bad start for the foreign policy of the Obama administration.
This should not surprise any PP readers. During the campaign, I consistently complained that Obama's shady NAFTA promises, which contributed substantially to his support in the Midwest, were bad foreign policy. The Canadians agreed, which is why they met with Obama's econ guy (which Obama denied until he was caught).
It's all part of the Obama game. He intentionally got elected by promising everything to everyone, regardless of costs to US economic and foreign policy standing. Now he has to find some way to keep everyone happy, even though he knows he was lying 90% of the time. Change We Can Believe In.
* From now on, I'll refer to the "Stimulus" in quotes, since evidence continues to mount indicating that it is not stimulus, but simply legislation of long-time Democrat agendas being disingenuously sold as "stimulus" by the Changemaker &co. I adopt this notation from David Henderson, who says that the bill "is likely to destroy wealth." Incidentally, he voices concern over the Buy American provision in the same post.
