Economist responds to jobs plan

Fort Wayne, Ind. (WANE) - President Barack Obama unveiled a $450 billion plan Thursday night to get more Americans back to work and jump-start the economy.

Director of the Center for Economic Education at Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, John Kessler, said implementing a jobs plan like the one President Obama proposed will be tough.

“We saw that with the previous stimulus. We're going to pass hundreds of billions of dollars to be spent,” he said. “It's one thing to say you're going to spend it. It's another thing to get it out there and get the money into people's hands. It took years to get that money spent.”

Kessler said, traditionally, government has a difficult time creating jobs.

Of the president’s speech, he said it had more to do with changing expectations about the country's economic future.

“If people have a plan that they like-- that people are comfortable with-- it will change their expectations of the future of the economy, Kessler said. “Then, people will be more comfortable going out and spending money. That's when the real stimulus will take place.”

Kessler raised questions about happens when the money used to create those new jobs runs out.

“You build those schools and you hire those teachers. What happens when that money is gone?” he asked. “You spend 400 billion dollars; it's been spent. Then what? Do those teachers get fired because the money's gone?”

Kessler said the President will face an uphill battle getting The American Jobs Act approved and funded by Congress. After negotiations, it plan could look very different.