Comments on: Obama names Doerr, Phillips to economic board

President names two Silicon Valley executives--who gave generously to Democratic politicians--to a committee charged with offering independent advice.

[CompEng]

Great. We have an advisory board full of managers and CEOs. Where are the economists? Even college deans are largely political positions.

[AppleSuxLeo]

And "face-job" Pelosi said TWICE that 500 million Americans lost their jobs last month.
Amazing stat , as we only have roughly 300 million Americans total population !
I guess the Obama honeymoon is over already.

[Voice_Of_Logic]

Change, my ass.

[amigosito]

I heartily disagree with the characterization of "$870 million for flu prevention, $6 billion for drinking water projects, and $19.5 billion for school modernization" as "random" spending projects. These are investments that will upgrade our crumbling infrastructure (esp. our schools!) while providing work relief for the unemployed.

There can be no doubt that people are lining up to get their unfair share of this stimulus package, and I don't see anything wrong with scrutinizing the bill, line by line. But consider the source of the criticism of the stimulus package as "pure pork" -- the Republicans in Congress still seem to think that tax breaks are the only way to recover. What kind of tax break could possibly help an unemployed person who doesn't have any taxable income?

[mmichaels]

"What kind of tax break could possibly help an unemployed person who doesn't have any taxable income?"

One that encourages somebody to hire him.

[pentest]

"One that encourages somebody to hire him."

Never has that happened,

With all that has happened, it is astounding that people still hang on to the discredited trickle-down theories,

[sanenazok]

@pentest: what's amazing is that people believe the Keynesian government spending theories. Have you ever run a business? Have you ever had to "make payroll" for employees? Guess what, lower taxes means higher productivity and more employment. It couldn't be simpler. Higher government spending means a temporary boost and a blossoming civil service sector with zero accountability and permanent employment for a small minority, unemployment for everyone else. This is known as France.

[michaelo1966]

if(author.equals("Declan McCullagh")){ credibilityLevel=CredibilityEnum.HATCHET_JOB; }

Seriously, CBS isn't exactly new to the news business; they should enforce some standards before the taint of labeling writing like this as straightforward news erodes their own brand.

At least one nugget did get through, which is that John Doerr will help figure out this mess. It's interesting to compare the Republican vs Democratic technology advisors. Republicans offer up Carly Fiornia, Meg Whitman, and Ken Lay. Democrats give John Doerr and Warren Buffet. 'Nuff said.

[financeprofessor]

Laura D'Andrea Tyson is not the Dean of the Haas School. The Haas School Dean is Rich Lyons.

[financeprofessor]

Doerr will give "independent" advice on what, exactly?
Declan states "Doerr has lobbied for laws at the state level--and, more recently, as part of the "stimulus" proposal--that would benefit his portfolio by moving toward smart grid, solar, and other technology." This is not change anyone can believe in.
It should be noted that Venture capitalists enjoy a different set of tax benefits and currently don't pay taxes on ordinary income for their partnership gains at the same egregious rate as the rest of us mere mortals - they pay in future periods on capital gains.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I strongly suspect this 'indpendant' advice will be very financially beneficial to those companies that these people are already associated with. It's happened before and I don't see it changing now.

Now if each those advisory board members were forced to quit all other jobs and leave any boards they are members of, forced to take the $500,000 max salary the bailout execs are being limited to, THEN I might believe in a bit of more impartiality.

[AppleSuxLeo]

I hope he`s a Doerr and not just a Talkerr.