> Sorry, if I'm unimpressed it doesn't look like effort, it looks like a PR campaign. I think you're both right and wrong that it's a PR campaign. It can be b

> Sorry, if I'm unimpressed it doesn't look like effort, it looks like a PR campaign. I think you're both right and wrong that it's a PR campaign. It can be both. Something positive, and something done for political benefit. The context is that it's very hard to get a bill passed in Congress right now unless both parties support it, and the Republicans have repeatedly blocked efforts to do things that help middle/working class folks, or help the the most serious environmental problems, etc. unless there's also kickback to the richest Americans and their favored industries (oil, military, etc.), or at least doesn't have anything that drops tax cuts or closes loopholes for them. They've opposed extended unemployment checks, for example. They've brought the nation to the very brink of default on it's debts, on an issue which historically is a routine ceremony of raising the "ceiling". That brinkmanship alone scares people, raises fiscal and market uncertainty and has a negative effect on spending -- this is beyond obvious to economists, a no-brainer. They opposed extending payroll tax cuts which disproportionately help middle/lower income class folks, and that most economists will tell you have a positive economic stimulus effect. Trying to pass anything in Congress gets turned into a political point scoring match, regardless of the actual objective merit or wisdom of it's benefits. In that context, it's much easier for a President to figure out which things they can do, just within the power of the Executive branch, to do something positive, however far from ideal it might be.