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Sinister Stimulus

Submitted by CJK on Mon, 01/05/2009 - 21:40
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I have a little different mind on the stimulus than Jon Henke. I don't think Obama is planning for people to start blaming his spending spree for causing all the problems that will accompany it. Here's what he's trying to do:

--Obama doesn't really seem to care about the deficit, so why not lavish huge tax cuts on top of his stimulus pie? If the Republicans oppose it they can be painted as mean-spirited and blindingly partisan in compared to the magnaminous Obama.

--If the stimulus somehow works (or the economy recovers anyway) Obama will get the credit for coming up with the entire idea, not the Republicans.

--If it doesn't work, it won't be interpreted as a failure of Keynesian economics. Instead the Obama administration will blame those dastardly Republicans for "watering down" whatever he originally opposed (and such watering down on the spending side is almost assured to occur). We will be told the only way to save the economy is to invest even more money. So the Dems will pass another huge stimulus. By the time the second stimulus takes full effect we'll probably already be out of the recession anyway, and thus Obama will be the hero again.

--The above will be encouraged by the fact that if the stimulus is full-blown bipartisan in nature, the public will take it to mean that the Republican party also believes massive state spending is needed to fix the economy. The question be framed as do we spend more or less? Hmmmmm.....

--The stimulus will advance the union cause and create millions of voters who at least think they owe their jobs to King Barack.

--With regards to the tax hikes, I don't think he'll do it. Oh, he'll surely loot the rich its just that he'd actually probably prefer the massive deficits to raising middle class taxes.

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You say "Obama doesn't seem

Submitted by In between on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 00:40.

You say "Obama doesn't seem to care about the deficit." 

 

I am sure you know that Bush came in office we had a yearly surplus. And Bush ran up deficits every year. And with this fiscal year, and not counting the latest financial crisis and bailouts, Bush is leaving close to a 500 billion dollar deficit and has added 4 trillion dollars of debt. 

With that we will bailout companies and that will add to the deficit. Add to that what Obama has to do to get us out of this mess. And it will be a whopper of a deficit. Over a trillion dollars.

Republicans have nothing to gripe about on the deficits. Bush ran them up and we have nothing to show for it.

Just think. Some 8 years of tax cuts and we are back into a recession. And where do you think those tax cuts come from? That money has to come from somewhere. It was borrowed money from other countries. So in effect, the country ran on borrowed money (tax cuts) during the Bush administration creating deficits and debt. And the republicans never cut spending. Add to that a war and you see the deficits and debt Bush is leaving the country.

And now how do you get out of this recession?

We already have had tax cuts and a stimulus package. So more tax cuts won't work. Add to that our middle class jobs are leaving the country. So tax cuts mean nothing.

The other stimulus is by the federal reserve with lower interest rates, and it may work long term, but it also creates inflation 3 years down the road. In effect another recession with high interest rates.

So your last resort is some government stimulus. And that means the infrastructure, energy independence, and whatever else you can do to create jobs.

What the republicans refuse to look at is globalization. You can have all the tax cuts you want, but the jobs keep going overseas. And without jobs, you cannot solve one thing. Add to that the cities and states are going broke. 

All I have seen in the past 8 years is our jobs going overseas, our money to Iraq, and the neglect of our infrastructure. Add to that free trade in which factories close and laissez-faire and you can see the most mismanaged, misinformed, and failed ideological administrations.

This is one fine mess, with hardly a way out.