The Obama administration’s economic blueprint was fatally flawed: it led to a weak stimulus and premature deficit reduction Those still wondering why the Obama administration surrendered so quickly on the drive for stimulus and joined the deficit reduction crusade, got the smoking gun in an article by the New Yorker’s Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza . Lizza revealed a 57-page memo drafted by Larry Summers , the head of the National Economic Council , in the December of 2008, the month before President Obama was inaugurated. The memo was striking for two reasons