President Obama’s No-Confidence Game
The Obama administration’s economic rhetoric thus far has been alarmingly irresponsible.
Let’s start with the president’s reaction to the government’s advance estimate of fourth-quarter economic growth.
Before its release, experts predicted that the economy’s gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted by an annualized 5%-6% during that period. The actual annualized -3.8% from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) was not nearly that bad.
Why not? Though the result could change in BEA’s February and March revisions, it appears that businesses built up inventories during the quarter in anticipation of revived demand early this year. If it weren’t for that, the annualized contraction would have been 5.1%.
The media spin that the inventory build-up masks larger overall weakness misses this important point: Businesses don’t build up inventories for the heck of it. They do it because they either have customer orders in hand or because their forecasting models tell them they can reasonably expect future orders.
It wouldn’t be surprising if this were indeed the case, because there are underlying indications of a nascent recovery. Gas prices have stayed well over 50% lower than they were last summer, keeping an estimated $1 billion a day in consumers’ pockets. Record-low mortgage rates have fueled a wave of refinancing around the country, with lower monthly mortgage payments freeing up additional billions of spendable dollars a month.
But it’s almost as if President Obama has seen these early signs of improvement and said, “We can’t have that.”
One thing those inventory forecasting models can’t figure in is the ability of a country’s chief executive and his party to throw cold water on consumer and business confidence.
The leaders of what I have been referring to as “the POR economy” — Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid — began doing this in earnest, both in actions and words, in June of last year. Since the November elections, their downbeat decibel level has done nothing but increase.
I just read that Obama recently said (to Chris Wallace?)that they need to get all their long-range goals passed in this bill, basically to get it past the voters. (paraphrased)
Interestingly, FDR said the same thing in 1938(?). He was worried that a recovery too soon would interfere with his attempts to fundamentally alter the country.
Off topic, one of the writers on townhall.con said that neither Dems nor Pubs know what to do. This stimulus bill is a guess; a gamble. I’ve heard this elsewhere. It infuriates me. When this crash first hit in September, many people came forward with solid plans for getting us out of the mess. They all boiled down to getting the government out of the way. Reverse Sarbanes-Oxley, mark-to-market, the CRA, etc…. The gummint caused this mess, and all we have to d is get the gummint out of the way.
I don’t know why Obama talks negatively about this country in so many ways, our economy, our history…maybe he was paying attention in (his) church. My best guess is he is following his old Alinksy ways and achieving accommodation through conflict. He has not put away the smoke and mirrors yet from the campaign. He’s a talker in a doer’s world.
The National Socialist Democratic Party is looking forward to the 2010 election. If they can keep things looking poor to bad between now and, say, spring of 2010 and then have a “miraculous” recovery begin, they think they will be a shoe- in for reelection. Politicians, Priests, and Prostitutes. Three oldest professions in the world.
“Businesses don’t build up inventories for the heck of it. They do it because they either have customer orders in hand or because their forecasting models tell them they can reasonably expect future orders.”
Obviously, there’s a third explanation: They build up inventories because sales are less than expected.
The entire ‘stimulus’ package is dishonest and corrupt. Obama’s negativity about the economy all about fostering dependence upon government and frightening people into forfeiting their sovereignty.
It is foolish to think the sort of corruption we see practiced in Washington today is going to help us. They can only make matters worse. With unaccountable architects of this mess like Frank, Dodd, and Rangel still in key positions that led to economic debacle, how can one possibly think otherwise?
Scrap the entire bill. Stop the power grab.
Perhaps(?) what we have is not a coincidence of circumstances, but a planned and managed train crash caused by the switches being left open and unobserved at all the proper moments. Not to say we did not have selfish criminal acts perpetrated by a banking culture (encouraged to) taking inordinate risks . . . Sorry, when a Barney Frank talks up Freddie Mac one month before it’s capsizing that is an indicator. Barney also let another indicator loose the other day when he indicated that the Obama salary caps should become the law across all industries . . . Inept, selfish, criminal management do not need “caps”, they need to be on the street. If someone with the talent and ability can turn a company around and save value and jobs they should be properly compensated.
Socialism is a lie (in all examples) it replaces one aristocracy (of the rich) with a nomenclatura (of the more than equal), faceless nameless Guvment apparachiki, that dole out benefits to those deserving based upon percentages, whim and political connections . . . if you don’t believe this look at the UK and Norway (national health), Venezuela, Cuba (in all aspects).
All The One is doing is following the advice of his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emenuel, who said that “a crisis should not be wasted” as an opportunity to ram through his social/economic agenda.
Which reminds me of a gentleman who, when asked by a visiting politician, how to take and hold power, said that “The trick is to convince the people to grant you exraordinary powers in a crisis. To hold on to the power, you simply continue to create crises as and when you need them.”
The speaker? Otto von Bismarck.
clear ether
eon
Spinoneone, you nailed it.[#3]
Wake up America! Those shovel-ready jobs BHO has in store for workers are actually hammer and sickle-ready.
I don’t need to tell anybody here what’s going on. Everyone reading these blogs knows it already.
Bill Ayers is finally getting what he and his pals have been planning for decades. The social planners took us down, intentionally, and they are keeping us there until they finish the job.
Here is how it affects me. I was hoping to start a new business. I have the perfect location, money saved, a good concept. But everyone I talk to tells me I am “insane” to start a business in this economy.
I was willing to fight hard, to go against the grain, but now I have to agree. It appears that Obama doesn’t like successful people. He would rather we busy ourselves filing government claims in a non-descript office somewhere, with his picture on the wall. The only kind of new business venture that Obama and friends encourage is “social entrepreneurship”. If you make money, the profits go into the community.
So, my business has been shelved due to the impending “catastrophe”. The contractor, the lawyer, the accountant, the equipment suppliers, the landlord –nobody will make any money.
But, that’s OK with Obama. He will provide.
Why you ask? Its the way socialists and putative tyrants work. It is easier to control poor people than rich people. Democrats are all about power.
The National Socialists (aka Democrats) closest to Dear Leader wouldn’t mind a Wiemar Germany level of economic collapse–they would come to our rescue with ever more state control and totalitarian remedies. “Transform America.”
We are not being mislead!
Don’t look over at that little brown man behind the White House curtains pulling those levers.
OZ is a wonderful socialist society,
or at least my liberal college professor says it should be.
Bush,
the wicked witch from Texas tried to destroy OZ, our peace and tranquility.
He flew planes with blacked out numbers and windows into the World Trade Center,
because the World Trade Center was an evil Bush puppeteer.
Anyway…
The wicked witch from Texas then attacked Afghanistan and Iraq- Liberal College professors from OZ know this is 1960s-1970s Vietnam-Cambodia, dajuve all over again.
So….
If the Obama wizard can drop a Democrat House on the wicked witches economic polices all will be well again in the land of OZ.
Big bad executives will be capped and
We can all hold hands and skip down the yellow brick road and over the socialists rainbow.
And under no circumstances should Steel Mills be bailed out!
Everyone knows that for 150 years Steel Mills have been unable to melt steel at those WTC temperatures,
and they are just a waste of Wall Street taxpayers monies.
This is a profoundly accurate article.
I see this administration running with the bad news the media is pumping out. And the media is publishing this bad news before they make any attempt to understand the data.
This is the result when you have juveniles in charge. And in this case, we also have (adult) juvenile delinquents.
Needless to say, these pathetic individuals are in control for years. Perhaps seeing what devastation they cause in that time will enlighten some people, enough people, to kick them out when we get the chance.
The Constitution is lacking, in the sense the People have no direct recourse to corrupt politicians such as these who are being protected by their own kind.
I hear your frustration, and believe me, it is shared. Thank you for putting this down in print.
It’s hard to believe that on a deeper level – besides wanting to rush through a “stimulus bill” that gives wads of cash to Democratic constituencies – the administration and the Democratic Congress are antagonistic to optimism about the economy.
I mean, for years now, we haven’t had a genuinely entrepreneurial culture encouraging people to take risks and try to go into “business” for themselves. Everything has to be licensed, regulated, alienated to a bureaucracy: the market can’t be trusted. People aren’t allowed to work for themselves or even support others who want to try and stake a claim on their own. I hate to be that cynical, but one thing that’s really depressing me is that conservative/alternative media has been going strong in a niche way for years, but has yet to reach a broader audience. Even with easy entry/easy access to markets the competition is rough; how much rougher is it when there’s a bureaucracy hampering one?
The Left has been trying for decades to create “the moral equivalence of war” where people rally around a cause enthusiastically support their leaders and willingly submit to “shared sacrifice” defined by the government. Obama and the socialists (and the international financial community) believe this is that time and they intend to ramp up the propaganda sufficiently to suppress our economy, pilfer the wealth of our citizens and wrestle us to the ground until we say “mercy”. The only “solution” will be to nationalize more industries and internationalize the monetary and banking systems. The Federal Reserve (the big banks) is just waiting in the wings to drop the other shoe.
Tom, as Sara has also realized, the solution to this puzzle can be found in BHO’s “This is a continuing disaster for America’s working families…” We’ve been slammed with this ludicrous, class-baiting rhetoric for over two years now, as you’ve regularly pointed out in this column.
To a marxist-socialist like BHO, everything is always all about “the workers”. No other class has standing in the eyes of the State (at least not outside the political elite). And of course redistribution of wealth is the only solution to the workers’ “plight”: …to each according to his need; not investment, not effort, not willingness to risk and certainly not one’s contribution… but according to need.
But beyond basic subsistence, what defines “need” in any real way?
Think about the class-baiting rhetoric we’ve been hearing from the Dems and the media (oops – repeated myself) for years now. At every turn, the middle class has been brow-beaten with the lies that their median income is shrinking, that the gap between what they earn and what the richest of the rich earn says anything significant about anything, and that they’re entitled to more than what they have. In short, they’re instructed at every turn that they “need” more. The vast middle class has collectively gone into all-time-record levels of debt trying to fill this need. The result was predictable and of course now we’re being instructed by our “betters” that wealthy CEOs are “the enemy” that caused it.
The irony of an ineffective career politician lecturing Americans regarding what executives should be making – when he himself has never held a successful executive position in his entire life – is truly stifling. That we don’t stop to think about whose salary will be capped next is a testament to the level of mass hysteria the entrenched media has managed to foment.
Everything on BHO’s agenda depends upon dividing and conquering the People by pitting one class against another in this way. Lies, claiming that the economy is four times worse than the evidence would support, is just one aspect of this agenda. Goebbels did the same by way of fomenting hatred of the Jews.
FDR’s administration was able to push us quite far down the road to socialism through the fear created by deepening and prolonging what would have been a self-correcting recession.
BHO and his marxist-socialist ilk seem to be the only ones who remember that history. That’s why everything is a “crisis” or a “disaster” or a “catastrophe”.
Santayana is weeping.
Socialist? Didn’t Bush start with the bailouts? He’s no socialist. Watch the hate fly. http://hateonme.com
It’s been said well so I will be brief.
The thought behind terrorism often is to make things so bad those just trying to eke out a living will accept anything.
We are experiencing economic terrorism of a sort, by plan, enabled by people like Barry Frank, Chris Dodd, Schumer, et. al. The longer this mess continues with the basic elements unaddressed, the less I can accept that the above named solons are stupid. Nobody is that stupid, I don’t think, except for committed Marxists such as Robert Mugabe.
Like Mugabe, these guys know they will not be missing any meals no matter what happens to the rest of us. But they will enhance their ability to pick the winners and losers by their increasing control over the economy, and make money as Daschle did. As Rangel and Cold Cash Jefferson prove, as long as you work for a Pelosi, kiss the ring (or whatever else is offered), corruption in office is no problem.
The “political class” indeed. Marx is smiling.
A little off topic yet worth pointing out. Did anyone else notice that in his little interview on CNN Obama sounded like he was still campaigning? He kept slamming the “last eight years.” Stop looking back if it’s so bad in your eyes, look forward. I want to know what he will do for us not what he thinks of the last eight years.
As for his fear mongering, he wants us to be afraid of the economy so he can enlarge the government. He refuses to use the phrase “War on Terrorism” because it’s too mean to our enemies yet he’ll launch a war against capitalism. Foolish man.
My husband is in the car business and he says that having Obama on every media outlet whining about the economy is KILLING the business (as I’m sure it is killing other businesses). NO ONE wants to go out and buy anything (least of all a big ticket item like a car) when they have Obama and those other thieves harping about how horrible the financial situation is. It’s as if they are doing it on purpose.
I agree that the hyperbole of horror from the US President is infuriating. It’s also irresponsible.
Either it’s his own psychological predilection to focus on loss & “the underdog” (and his own pretend benevolence towards same) or he is attempting to grow socialism and cement the belief that “the only entity capable of rescuing us from ecomomic downtimes is the federal government”.
Or both.
The feds, state and local goverments need a constant supply of fear, doubt and uncertainty to justify the money the spend on our behalf. Goverment is supposed to solve problems not keep them around eternally. A lot of hot air was directed at the war in Iraq and the amount of money it costs. How much has the war on poverty cost us to date? Ditto the war on drugs? The goverment has no interest in solving problems. To do so would put the jobs of thousands of lawyers, Lobbyists and Bureaucrats in Jeopardy. The federal government no longer serves the people as a whole, it serves the special interests, lobbyists and advocacy groups that constantly whine about how important they are. We have already priced ourselves out of manufacturing in this country due to the immense rules and regulations we have to contend with. What was left over in the service sector is being outsourced. We are being impoverished and sacrificed on the altars of global trade, diversity and fairness.
And today Obama’s using the media to spread MORE FEAR!
Can’t somebody really panic and fire Obama?
Obama is MAKING A BAD SITUATION WORSE!
The economy is bad and we can’t stick our heads in the sand and ignore that fact. However, there’s no denying that at least a percentage of the market’s performance is based on psychological factors. Dumping on the economy on a daily basis is further damaging the economy. The President can’t be the whiner in chief, he has to be the cheerleader in chief! Rather than demonizing free enterprise, he ought to be spotlighting companies that have been well managed. He could also spotlight innovative start-ups. He could be wooing companies that have moved overseas. And he could be incentivizing innovation, risk-taking and hard work, rather than demonizing them. We don’t need more government; we need more private enterprise.
The porkulus is a NIGHTMARE. If the stimulus bill was focused on bridges, highways, roads, other transportation infrastructure (rail and air) and energy grids, and accompanied by tax cuts that encourage businesses to create jobs, I think it would have the support of the American people. This diffuse, special interest bill is simply going to waste 1 trillion dollars. If we’re going to spend that much money, we ought to have something to show for it. This is just a bill that attempts to meet pent-up demand for Democratic spending on pet projects. What a tragedy.
BO’s column in today’s Wash Post is almost hysterical, and I don’t mean funny. His constant speeches about how bad the economy is part of the problem not the solution.
Every time he does this he sounds less and less like a serious president.
- Socialist?
Undeniably.
- Didn’t Bush start with the bailouts?
Is this deflection supposed to be a response? Rebuttal? Whether or not it was the right thing to do at the time, McCain lost a critical mass of conservative Republican support for going along with this.
Few of Bush’s domestic, “compassionate conservative” policies did us much good – tax cuts being his singular positive domestic policy contribution to a strong America – as demonstrated by consistent GDP growth and record federal tax revenues. Ironically, if not for 9/11, I fear Bush’s Presidency would have been a net loss for America – just like his father’s was. Just as ironically, if not for 9/11, the only thing the Dems / entrenched media would’ve had available for their 8-year-long, 24/7 demonization campaign against him would have been Gore’s inability to carry his own home state in 2000 and distractions about abortion and the definition of marriage.
But ask yourself this: who actually pulled the pin on the meltdown last September – at precisely the instant BHO needed it to reverse his dropping poll numbers? Bush? Nope. Just the doofus holding the bag. Paulson? Nuh-uh. Simply the hysterical, blind-sided messenger. The credit “crisis” and the cause(s) for it (sub-prime, CRA, FM/FM “irregularies”, etc.) has been all but common knowledge among the financial and political elite since 2004 – a scam run on American taxpayers and voters since long before that, owned and operated by Dem bureaucrats and their enablers (Dodd, Frank, et al.) in D.C.
It’s clear that these people turned a problem that was ostensibly being managed into a sudden disaster – politicizing it for the purposes of manipulating the election. And BHO continues to milk the disaster/catastrophe/crisis rhetoric. In this he clearly demonstrates his total lack of executive experience and utter lack of leadership skills. But he’s not interested in either, rather his interest is in pushing us toward the only ideology he’s been trained to value: socialism.
Obama is pumping the theme of economic awfulness in order to limit debate on the porkulus.
It’s an ego thing to meet his February 16 deadline for the passage of this travesty. A President doesn’t want to see his first big economic push (no matter that it’s likely a piece of junque largely concocted by Nancy P*) go down to defeat.
(*yesterday, Nancy P said that every month the porkulus isn’t passed, 500,000,000 Americans lose their jobs. Total population of the US, man, woman & child, is around 300,000,000)
Somebody is trying hard to get nominated for the Jimmy Carter hall of fame. Please cast your ballot regarding the trophy:
A. Solar-powered bobbing head.
B. Handful of change in various hopish colors
C. Carbon footprint of a minnow. (Greened)
D. Engraved Harvard-Columbia BS Certificate.
Whoops! Forgot the last entry in the trophy candidate list:
E. Globally warmed Alinski doorknob.
Think about it. Soros has the ability to move markets, and had a major hand in the 1997 shenanigans that rocked the financial system. Paulson is a former Goldman head and a Democrat. What better way to secure the election of Obama than to create economic fear of collapse in the fall — which happened right on schedule. And, Schumer helped collapse a bank this summer with his public statements.
What I suspect happened is that the system was shakier than these geniuses thought it was and what was intended to be a bit of a fright-inducing downturn spiraled out of control when the truly sophisticated investors saw that the emperor had no clothes and bailed for the exists and cash.
Now, of course, the Democrats and Obama are riding the tiger — hoping to use the fear they’ve induced but has spiraled out of control to enact truly socialist and collectivist legislation that will fundamentally alter the republic.
I don’t like conspiracy theories as a general matter, but the timing of the mortgage and financial crises just smells bad.
He is trying to grow socialism. -There is definitely something going on when the heads of the executive branch and congress sound like street-corner doomsday prophets. That sort of leadership does not inspire the requisite confidence towards an improved economy. They are willing to step on the weak in order to get where they want to be. -And it will be the weakest that are hurt first. The question is, will Obama supporters smell a rat before the mania fades. He doesn’t have much time and it sounds like he knows it.
If he gives the public the truth, the 38% of people who actual like the crap sabdwich he is pushing around as stimulus, would bail on him as well.
Thus begins the hopium cold turkey. You wanted the junk.
When people are prosperous they don’t need or want socialistic government programs. Being in the economic doldrums is not a bug of socialism, its a feature. It is often said that socialism doesn’t work, but this simply isn’t true. It works just fine for the people in the government.
If they could make the economy surge by waving some magic wand rest assured that they would not do it as this would eliminate the demand for the “product” that they are trying to sell.
Got me religion…an holden tight to me guns!
Cato: from 1993 to 2007 according to the census ferderal expenditure data base the government paid out 1.3 trillion dollars on mortgage insurance of all kinds. Since the feds gave this money to lending companies, just what caused the housing crisis? I agree with you the the circumstances of the financial meltdown stink and the timing is suspect. I believe there is more here than what is being told to us. We still dont know what the fed did with the 2 trillion they already burned through.
The GOP believes tax cuts will solve all our problems. We don’t need more tax cuts. We need jobs. It’s very simple.
Simple 5 point plan:
1: Abolish Federal Reserve
2: Abolish IRS, convert to fair tax
3: Withdraw from UN
4: Increase domestic oil + coal production, build more refineries + nuclear PBMRs{Pebble Bed Modular Reactor}
5: Secure borders, deport illegals
This is a great article and your analysis is accurate. I live off my income from the stock market and my financial advisors have told me that the economy will begin to pick up by late 2009 and early 2010. They are not pessimistic. Obama is straightout LYING to the public.
Obama is using a Saul Alinsky tactic. Alinsky was particularly good at suggesting ways to terrify the middle class, so that there why there is so much hype about losing one’s home and losing one’s savings. Commentor #20, Harry Schell, is quite correct in his suggestion that Obama is practicing “economic terrorism.”
The proper response to Obama is rage. We should be enraged that he is playing with not only the American, but the global economic system in order to shove his policies down Americans’ throats. He has already angered the Canadians, members of the EU, and China. If his policies are passed, they will drag down the economies of many countries.
wildman: The short answer is I don’t know what caused the housing crisis. A combination of things (government intervention to encourage subprime lending, Freddie/Fanie, bankers who could make money making loans they did not have to live with, widely accepted measures of risk in mortgage securities that were inapproriate and were based on data that did not include the depression or loans made to the uncreditworthy, etc.) that made it increasingly fragile and subject to shocks that, even a decade ago, would not have caused more than a hiccup.
You should read the works of both Nikolas Taleb (The Black Swan) and Rick Bookstaber (A Demon of our Own Design) to get a sense of how easily the whole thing could spiral out of control and how much the people who might well have been doing some tipping or tinkering would not have any clue how precarious it all had become.
When you have the combination of a fragile market, tightly coupled to an increasingly integrated and automated financial system, and the true risks being run are orders of magnitude greater than those involved realize, and then someone starts playing games with the system, the effect is the same as a truly exogenous shock event (a ‘black swan’ disproving millenia of belief that ‘all swans are white’).
That’s my quick take on how things became such a mess so fast.
When employement is lower than you wish, Job demand is huge. It’s job supply that is choking point. Who supplies jobs? Employers!
How do you shift the employer cash flow equation towards more hirings? In good times, higher prices could help somewhat, but in hard times it just can’t! Nothing comes close to tax cuts when it comes to relieving businesses from the contracting pressures of hard times. And this includes small business, by far the most nimble and the most adaptive of all economic engines!
If the circumstances are so dire that our national budget is going to take a hit, one way or the other, tax cut is the pro-active approach. Spending is reactive in the first place, but it’s even worse, it’s addictive!
If our leaders think that a panic can be solved by triggering another one, are they really thinking?
Detox anyone?
LAWYERS ARE SPINNERS, OBAMA INCLUDED
Obama cannot escape his training and Harvard law education.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/our-spinning-president-parses-truth.html
Jobs? Let’s get some realism injected into the discussion. And let’s call things what they are.
The SKIMULUS Package is a Reid-Pelosi boondoggle. RE-PEL SKIMULUS package has the following little tidbits.
1) $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts; Now, quite frankly…I’m not a big fan of opera, the ballet or poetry readings. I don’t attend them with any regularity. But, I’m not vehemently opposed to making them more readily available or bigger, better attended or brighter entertainment spectacles for those who enjoy them. I love the NFL and most major team sports and wish the same for them. I just don’t think either avenue of entertainment has the slightest thing to do with a economic recovery package. One form of entertainment should not take a place at the table in a financial crisis over any other, and certainly not over more pressing issues. Skimming off even a “little” amount like FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS, simply does not belong here. My mild interest in this form of entertainment does not sway my opinion here…I would say the exact same thing for the NFL, naked female jello wrestling or the Marcel Marceau International Mime Festival.
2) $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects.
Forget for a moment the continuing stream of credible scientists who believe the whole “human blamefest” of global warming being “caused” by (here fill in the demonized capitalists who are “ruining” everything for the doe-eyed, innocent socialists). This has NOTHING to do with stimulating the economy. Skimming off a few billion dollars here and a few billion dollars there to keep aging hippies and tree huggers happy, employed and occupied is a noble enterprise, it’s simply not remotely related to stimulating a “crisis” laden economy. As a pet project reward for votes to those who stayed “on message”, it works wonderfully.
3) There’s even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
TV….Conversion….Coupons. $650 million. To help watch Oprah, Dr. Phil and The View. I mean, where else are the lemmings going to get their daily dose of “the message”? This may be stimulating “something”, but I would feel pretty safe in saying what it stimulates would not be the economy in “crisis”.
4) 22.5% of the $550 billion that is related to spending (not tax cuts) would go to social programs, such as expanding food stamps and extending benefits for the unemployed and subsidizing their health insurance.
Sweet, compassionate, noble. But it has absolutely nothing to do with “stimulating” an economy in “crisis”. In fact, paying MORE money to the unemployed while they are unemployed and giving them greater benefits is an EXPENSE, not a stimulus. No matter how noble one thinks of this, it is simply the precise opposite from a “stimulus” to the economy in “crisis”.
$252 billion for income-transfer payments — that is, not investments that arguably help everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all. There’s $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don’t pay income tax. While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, they aren’t job creators, they aren’t related to any “stimulus” to an economy in “crisis”.
5)$600 million more for the federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3 billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles.
They can’t get by on a measly $3 billion every year for their vehicles? Buy a Honda and hold onto it for 12 years like the rest of us.
6)$7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities.
Nice idea to redecorate government employee offices, just not sure how making their chairs more comfy and getting Herman Miller chairs helps out to “stimulate” the economy in “crisis”.
Look, the RE-PEL team “won”. To the victor go the spoils and all that. Let’s just call this what it is. They are going to reach deep into your pockets and reward their constituents and themselves for staying “on message”. The SKIMULUS package is the reward. Quit whining and take your beating like a man.
If they create a deeper recession or even a depression, it’s too damn bad. If you didn’t want a RE-PEL government, you should have won. You didn’t. You lost. Live with it.
Like that attitude? Get used to it. You have it fully in your face for at least four years.
Simple…it’s called the Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis, developed in the 1960′s by two communist Columbia U. professors, Richard Cloward and Frances Piven.
If you sit around saying to yourself, “How can Democrats — with their Harvard degrees — be so incredibly clueless about economic reality?”, then you should read this enlightening article about the Cloward-Piven Strategy.
Everything will make sense after that.
And remember: Lefty-hero Vladimir Lenin spelled out the Leftist strategy quite clearly with two quotes:
…and…
I think the real reason he’s trying to push this through is he doesn’t want the economy to start to recover on its own. I mean, can you imagine if things start to get better before his stimulus package is passed?
Government spending coming to a theatre near you:
Science
$6.6B British ID Program Has No Card Readers
Jason Mick (Blog) – February 5, 2009 9:20 AM
British ID card is packed with useful biometric information for security purposes, like facial and fingerprint scans. However, the British government forgot to buy readers for them and has no concrete plan to add readers to the expensive card program. (The UK’s ambitious program revealed to be a major waste of money as they have no available readers
The U.S. is beginning to find out the hard way that adopting a digital ID card system isn’t as simple as it seems. U.S. passport cards were recently easily hacked in a proof-of-concept attack covered here on DailyTech. However, security concerns aside, ID cards have other problems as well.
Britain’s ID card program has become the poster child for problems of the weird variety. The program seemed very promising, with the intention of putting a wealth of information at law enforcement’s fingertips and making it harder for criminals to enter or exit the country. The carding program, run by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), cost $6.6B USD (£4.7B). The IPS offered cards with a wealth of data including biographical data as well as facial and fingerprint scans.
While such information would certainly be helpful to law enforcement efforts, there was one critical problem. British officials forgot to buy readers for the cards.
A news site, Silicon.com, submitted a FoI (Freedom of Information) request to the IPS, which responded by revealing that currently no police stations, border entry points, or job centers have readers for the card’s biometric chip. Without readers, the card essentially becomes just a photo ID; no more or less secure than a standard drivers license, albeit at a much higher cost.
Identity minister Meg Hillier, ironically, had just told the site the previous week that the fingerprinting information was a “vital part” of the program as “fingerprint coded into the chip … links you to the card.” Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling was quick to attack the floundering program. He states, “Once again ministers have shown that the ID card project is absolutely farcical. What is the point of spending billions of pounds on cards that can’t be read in the UK?”
wildman: one major factor with respect to housing was lending regulations…
Specifically, the Carter era CRA and the Clinton admin’s expansion of those regulations were at the heart of the problem. Yes, this law regulated bank and other credit institution operations, so those who claim this problem was due to ‘not enough regulation’ are ignoring the facts. This law required changes in loan rules that artificially lowered the bar to qualifying for a mortgage.
The “rationale” that justified forcing such risky loans in order to provide “affordable mortgages” was that the securities – i.e., the real property – backing these loans could not lose value. To use Franklin Raines’ words, these real estate backed securities were ‘riskless‘. On the contrary, the truth slapped both him AND his stupid notion down with a heavy dose of irony.
And keep in mind, btw, that BHO was among the shyster lawyers out there attacking banks for not writing enough such risky loans.
By artificially creating more “qualified” borrowers – many of whom wouldn’t have qualified for loans absent CRA – this mechanism, combined with the relatively low interest rates at the time, artificially increased the pool of home and investment property buyers, creating a sellers’ market for real estate which, in turn artificially inflated real estate prices far beyond actual market values (i.e., given a normal market).
Because a lot of these loans were sub-prime, adjustable mortgages (i.e., the payment goes up and down with interest rate), when interest rates rose dramatically a couple years back as the Fed tried to “control” our economic growth (idiots), they also drove the mortgage payments for millions of people beyond their ability to pay them. This of course was reported by the lying media as a result of “predatory lending practices” – practices which were mandated by CRA revealed to be dangerous when the interest rates rose. Once again, Wall Street was blamed for a problem created by government.
This, combined with the interest rate increase (which naturally reduced the pool of potential buyers) caused the housing bubble to burst. Housing prices plummeted. Mortgages defaulted.
As a result, all of Raines’ Riskless Real Estate Securities™ went effectively bust and left thousands of lending institutions with billion$ in toxic assets, i.e., defaulted mortgages on homes purchased at inflated prices that weren’t worth the face value of the mortgage.
The problem was the way in which these “riskless” securities were leveraged in the rest of the financial markets. When they suddenly became toxic, every institution that depended on the value of the declining real estate assets suddenly found that portion of its portfolio heading south. The financial institutions most heavily invested in these were the first to go under early last year.
The most interesting aspect of all this is that it’s a problem that was known and ongoing as far back as 2004, when OFHEO blew the whistle on Raines. The Republican Congress under Bush did absolutely nothing to stem the tide – they were too busy spending the windfall profits they were seeing from the accelerated tax revenue created by the tax cut / economic growth. The Dem Congress has also done absolutely nothing to address the issue, which miraculously came to a head and became a public “crisis” at precisely the point where it would help BHO the most in getting elected last year. He continues to politicize that “crisis” in order to push his marxist-socialist, “spread the wealth around” agenda.
Announcing a stimulus plan for the mind.
What would happen if by some quirk of fate, 53% of imbacilic Americans elected a bunch of socialists to run
the country?
A) They’d lead this country to unprecedented growth and prosperity.
B) They’d turn this country into a European model socialist state.
C) The populace would go along with the program like lambs to slaughter.
D) All over the above
E) Other
Here (linked below) is an even more detailed breakdown of the Skimulus.
(It was yesterday that the President said that, in the need to get this done very quickly, the pork amounts to “details”)
50 De-Stimulating Facts
(maybe Pat J could go item by item and relate it to “job creation”)
Rachel, I think the correct answer is “F) We’re about to find out.”
Without arcing into complete paranoia, the Cloward/Piven thing (rvastar #46) sounds uncomfortably familiar.
The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse…By crisis, we mean a publicly visible disruption in some institutional sphere.
Good read- and re-read.
But if you caused a socialists revolution might not the current leaders suffer some consequences as in (OFF WITH THEIR HEADS?)
Quoting a poor peasant in France during the revolt,
and need for some real grain bread.
fear’, the “current leaders” view themselves (and the media presents them) as nothing less than saviors from our present situation, which they created. They are wannabe versions of Che, Mao and Castro.
In today’s context the bourgeoisie you’re thinking of would be the Wall Street CEOs, “predatory lenders” and Republican white males who are standing in the way of “progress” – the ones the media and leftist politicians are working so hard to demonize.
The maxim “Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence” applies in most situations. This would be the exception that proves the rule.
When the CBO says the stimulus bill will actually harm the economy, it’s time to listen. I have no desire to borrow money to have pork crammed down my throat.
Why, because they do not understand if somebody has no money and nobody will lend them any money thay cannot spend any money.
Our UK£ is the world’s comedy currency at the moment because our government tried to spend monopoly money, the insane economics of Obama’s stimulus will ensure the dollar is soon going the same way.
Yeah, socialism is awful. We should get rid of all aspects of socialism in our government.
Like the police. Why should I have to pay taxes so that the police can protect other people’s property? That’s not fair. If other people get robbed or murdered, that’s their problem. Let’s privatize the police. That way, wealthy people can get premium police protection. And that way, I can be free to rob or murder someone who cannot afford police protection.
Let’s also privatize the fire department. Why should I have to pay to put out fires that don’t concern me or my property? That’s bogus. And everyone knows that competition drives better business. I want private companies to compete over who is going to put out my fire. We should go back to the 19th century model in which multiple fire companies would show up to the same fire and physically brawl it out to see who gets to save my house from fire. Hopefully there will be something left to extinguish after all the negotiating. Plus, I get to enjoy arsoning the heck out of those poor suckers who can’t pay the firefighters’ fees. Bonus: My premium private security plan protects me from any charges brought against me by non-subscribers.
Let’s privatize justice too. Why should I pay taxes for the salaries of federal and state judges and lawyers? Now that I have a subscription for premium security coverage, I rarely am brought up on charges, so I rarely have to hire any lawyers when I purposefully immolate the lives and property of destitute families. Why should I pay for services that I don’t need? And why should those who can’t afford justice be able to get the same level of justice as I do? I can pay more than them, so I should get a better product.
Socialism is ruining this country.
A harsh note, but you will never understand liberalism until you grasp that they WANT to make you miserable, and of course, dependent.
There have been those leaders in history who at best are callous to suffering, I say, at best. Why would anyone expect that we, or our time, or liberals are any different? Put a few pieces together, energy, global warming, abortion on demand, and Obama plus liberal policy and this current mess they are pushing, it hardly adds up to altruism, which in any case can be and usually is a lie.
I’m a Democrat and I think Obama is doing everyone a disservice by his gloom and doom rhetoric — “pass this bill or we’ll have a depression.
The nation needs calm, assertive leadership. There is no doubt that a big fiscal stimulus is in order (the right kind).
What we’re seeing is a brand new President bashing the economy daily to avoid “losing” a squabble with the GOP. Bad start.
http://thepurplecenter.blogspot.com/
51. tanstaafl:
————–
I hereby accept your challenge. Get back to you later.
I don’t think Acorn deserves 4.13 B. of our tax money to undermine our nation. I told my Senators and representative so. Of course that is payback for Obama’s fraudulent votes. Let them hear from us!!!!!!
58. Steve P.:
Get a grip on reality.
Excellent examples of straw man arguments, Steve P — a standard issue weapon in the arsenal of any good Leftist.
Fortunately, the fallacious “points” of fallacious arguments don’t need to be refuted. Recognizing and identifying the fallacies is sufficient.
Obama is repeating over and over what Reagan called the scariest 9 words in the English language.
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
And he doesn’t get it.
Poster #46 has the link ( American Thinker) which spells this chaos out in detail and nails the absolute truth of socialisms designed destruction of America.
Yeah,capitalism is awful. We should get rid of all aspects of capitalism in our society.
Like freedom of speech. Why should I have to listen to Rush Limbaugh or Fox News? I shouldn’t be subjected to those opinions, so that the people have the ability to hear differing points of view. That’s not fair. If other people get information that is different from what I want to listen to, hear or read that’s a problem. Let’s nationalize a state media. That way, we all get only the information that the state wants us to get. One point of view for everyone. It’s works for those of us now who all march in lockstep anyway. And that way, I can be free to rob or murder someone who cannot get at real facts, you know…like a few million of those hardliners who still want access to actual information. And all this “materialism” that comes from being a capitalist is bound to make us want to stand out. Gray pajamas for everyone. And some lovely state music on radio and TV.
Let’s also nationalize real estate, property and land. Mother Earth belongs to all creatures, why should I have a house or land or my property? That’s bogus. And everyone knows that competition drives artists, Bohemians and wimps insane. There is no need for competition in a land of cowards and backsliders. I want state plans to eliminate competition, mostly in five year production goals. That way, we can pretend to work while they pretend to pay us. No need to make a better product, because nobody will want the crap we produce anyway. The worker’s party will be just like a union, busting kneecaps for not voting the “state” line. Party officials will eat caviar, while we wait in bread lines. Isn’t socialism wonderful?
Let’s nationalize law, medicine and science too. Why should anyone have a different argument in a court of law? Everyone should bow to the state rules and if they choose independence over obedience to the state, they can enjoy a “reeducation camp”.
And doctors? Assembly line medicine is good enough. Everyone gets the same assembly line health care. Disinterested and unmotivated health care workers, red tape bureuacrats taking both the Hippocratic and the Hypocritic oath at the same time. While they are pretending to care about your well being, you can pretend to be healthy.
Science? We will tell scientists what they are to find in their conclusions. We want to say there is global warming…then regardless of what the facts, laboratory tests, computer models show…they will find global warming. This is good. We already know the outcome of every answer to a scientific question BEFORE the tests are run. This leads to consistency and predictability, all good things in our state dominated society. In our state domination, we know the answers before the questions.
Why pay taxes for the salaries of federal and state judges and lawyers, they are useless, you have no defense anyway. If we already know the outcome of your trial before you are officially charged? Now that I have a state issued pair of gray pajamas, I don’t need protection from the state’s intrusion. I don’t own anything, am not allowed to think for myself, I am goosesteppingly obedient and cower in a corner when approached by a state official. They took my guns, saying that they were too dangerous.
They took away our right to have secret ballots in our workers’ unions. They took away our right to speak out …isn’t socialism wonderful?
I rarely am brought up on charges, so I rarely have to hire any lawyers and the outcome is preordained, anyway. Why should I pay for services that I don’t need?
Socialism is ruining this country, isn’t it wonderful?
We don’t need all these differing opinions. We certainly get along just fine at Koz Kidz and Huffington Post and reading the NYTimes without them.
Don’t waste your time, Pat J…cuz you can’t.
The problems facing the US economy are three-fold…and none of them /i> will be addressed by funding green-energy or public-works projects.
1) The US financial system is being strangled by artificially-inflated, overvalued assets.
2) That overvaluation has led to a credit-based society as opposed to a savings-based society.
3) This credit-based, artificial “wealth” has led to HUGELY distorted retail- and service-based industries.
In short: five years ago, too many people in this country making $40K a year bought homes that cost $250K and were drinking $3 cups of coffee that they purchased at one of 17,000 Starbucks stores.
The so-called “stimulus” is simply going to allow the Ponzi scheme to go on for a while longer…with an additional $3 trillion in debt for the public to pay back.
Here’s what needs to happen over the next 10 years:
- Interest rates on any type of loan should be set at at least 10%.
- People need to stop compulsively buying things for 2-3 years and work on paying off their smaller debts (cars, credit cards, personal loans, etc.).
- Kids entering college need to start studying engineering and computer science, as opposed to women’s studies and sculpture.
- We need to jump start our manufacturing industry again, as after we’ve suffered through 2-3 years of recession, there will be plenty of people who will be willing to work for $10/hr on an assembly line.
- Initiate a flat-tax.
- Slash and burn fed. govt spending.
Steve P: You evidently do not understand what Socialism is or what it is not. I take that back, you do know what it is, but you purposely misrepresenting it. In either case, you should be ashamed of yourself for advoting a system than has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people and has blighted the lives of hundreds of millions more.
A Fire or Police dept ia not socialism. That is just absurd. Socialism does not equate to legitimate government organizations, particualrly at those at a local level.
Socialism means the state (or some sort of collectivist organization) owns and/or manages the means of production of goods and service and their distribution. What does that have to do with local fire depts.? Certainly nothing that the constitutions prohibits. “Justice” is not a “service” in any commercial sense at all, it is the legitimate province of government, perhaps one of the very few legitimate one. So is security, ergo fire and police departments. It is absurdly stretching the term to imagine that these are commercial service. The US constitutions and the States’ constitutions all clearly enumerate these areas as duties of the government. Are you calling the Founders Socialists? This is barely even a straw man argument, it is more of a red herring response. In either case it is fallacious reasoning on the face of it and therefore an valid argument,
The US government nationalizing the Finance industry is socialism. Universal health care is socialism. Nationalizing the auto industry is socialism. Have we had in the past or now at this time Socialist aspects to our political-econmic system? Yes, and they have been disasters. In fact, most ills that haunt our nation today are the result of socialist policies and laws, 98% of which have been foisted on us by the Democrat Party. We have had creeping socialism for years, and if we are to survive as a Republic, we had better mantle’s these socialistic aspects of our nation just as soon as we possibly can.
Socialism ultimately devolves down to small, tyrannical ruling oligarchy, generally in the guise of a one party state, and a broad mass of slaves without firm rights or property who live in poverty and at the whim of the ruing class. There is little hope of advancing out of this condition for all but a very few. History is full of vicious examples: The USSR, Communist China, Hitler’s National Socialists (yes, the Nazis were socialists), Mussolini’s Italy, Mexico under the PRI, even Saddam Hussein’s Baath party was a socialist party.
Even so called soft-socialist “third way” societies are quite restrictive, and now under the EU moving toward full totalitarianism. They have only managed to exist because of the protective shield provided by the USA. Europe now is flailing apart fro the results of 50 years of soft socialism, soon it will devolve into a quite harsh totalitarian system. The American Leftist’s notion of the “European socialist paradise” is a complete fiction, wholly unsupported by facts on the ground in the EU.
There can be no liberty without economic freedom, and there can be no economic freedom without firm property rights. I have lived under harsh socialist and communist regimes, let me tall you, it is a hideous existence. It is literally a form of serfdom.
You do not really know what socialism truly means. If the Democrat commit the treason of implementing it here in the USA, believe me, you will not like it one bit when it arrives. And it is treason for to have such a system the Constitution must be subverted. Socialism demands that the state can confiscate property at any moment it so chooses. It cannot tolerate individual liberty. That class less society does not mean a high level of posterity for all. It means equal immiseration for all but a few. There can be no middle class in and established socialist society.
You will be in the serf class, not the ruling class, and you will not like it one bit.
He wants the economy to fail. The more easily to institute socialism. (Or worse.)
I love it; Obama’s becoming a FAILURE all on his own. How many of us were prescient about this result? I’m asking for more; MORE!
The Democrat and media’s christ child is displaying human traits. How could He do this?
AND THIS HAPPENED WHEN RUSH LIMBAUGH WAS ON VACATION
Liberals thrive on failure. Makes the masses more dependent, and jealous of people who succeed. Witness LBJ’s Great Society. All we got was more crack whores and fatherless children.
correction:therefore an INvalid agrument.
The start point of this discussion is flawed. It assumes that Mr Tambourine Man actually cares about Americans. He only cares about those who are willing to march lock step with him toward socialism.
So driving America into the ground is not really something that concerns him or his fellow travelers.
LeighB writes:
“I don’t know why Obama talks negatively about this country in so many ways, our economy, our history…”
LeighB, et al, let him continue this mantra. Those of us who are old enough know that two years of this bravo sierra turned off Americans to that doofus motard from Plains and was the main reason Reagan got elected.
We just got flat-assed weary of Jimmah preaching his malaise sermons and not being able to “president” himself out of a wet paper bag.
Give it another six or seven months and that screechy broad of a first lady will start weighing in about how she is no longer proud of America again and then the avalanche will really begin.
1. it is both comforting and scary as hell to hear all my own fears and worries, those that seemed just too crazy to even be put into words echoed here. I am impressed with the level of knowledge and diaglouge on this comment thread.
2. with the exception of steve
3. cfbleachers and Mongoose, you are my heroes.
Because we don’t have access to the President’s academic records, from high school on through college and graduate school, we don’t know if he ever took a course in economics of finance. Those of us who did study those disciplines (I have) know that there will always be cycles in the capitalist economic system. All recessions end, if you don’t do things that prolong them, like raise taxes and enact protectionist measures. Moreover, as I’ve observed since I was a teenager just in the Army back in ’73 (that recession lasted until late 1975) all recessions seem bleakest right at or near the bottom. That’s when most of the layoffs occur. Anyone who has learned from history knows this, but Obama has not learned from history.
Good leadership does not lay on the doom and gloom, but will point people forward towards the day when we will experience economic growth again. Obama is a poor leader. And we are going to see this is innumerable ways as we go forward, as pertaining to things like foreign and defense policy as well. He’s just a puppet who’s way in over his head.
The answer to why Obama does this is obvious (it’s the same reason any politician at many points on the political compass does it): if things recover without them, their rationalization for control disappears.
There is one fundamental lust that explains nearly all of the Feds actions, be they by Obama/Pelosi/Reid or even someone light years morally better, such as Bush: they loathe and fear free, individual choice.
All those who support the present Progressive administration and Congress (with few exceptions) shares this fear and loathing.
It is a very basic mistrust of individuals, with the consequent overwhelming desire to control them. The economy, the poor and needy, the this and the that, are just handy excuses.
I’m scared. I’m really scared. I’m, like, very scared. I’m super scared. And duper scared. I’m super duper scared. I’m down home scared. Montgomery Gentry scared . . . killing caged bear scared. My frightened’s been heightened thanks to rough titanic panic. I’m coon scared. I’m Jigaboo and Satchmo scared. Blue-gum scared. Groid scared. Shiny Southern Spook scared. Please, Mr. President, please don’t eat the children. And don’t burn the churches. We like them – the children and churches I mean – the colored people not so much.
The economy and the nation’s prosperity is going to keep tanking for one simple reason.. broad rhetoric whether positive or negative in tone rules the day – it simply trumps all logic in a very fickle world.
If figures are optimistic they’re too good to be true (eg. the surge), if figures are pessimistic make them more so (eg. greedy America is little satan), jackals in all walks of life prosper on fear and misery. Markets like individuals react to changing climates of confidence (especially doubt), and dictators for ever and a day know to rely on the illogical and the fantastical to press ahead with their radical agendas.
They’re masters of manipulation – honesty and courage are all that stand in their way. “If” the Dem’s gross spending bills are stopped in their tracks it will truly be a triumph for common sense and for generations of Americans to come.
I’m neither Democrat or Republican, but I notice that all of you are angry. Are all of you losers?
Boron, please let us know how you feel the next time you’re robbed blind of your hard earned dollars.
.. we’ll take liberty here and assume you know what an honest days work is of course.
Otherwise carry on being a happy little serf…
Boron,
Neither am I, but no not all here are losers.
However, when you see people who lose their liberty and prosperity over a period of years because of Democrats and Republicans who want to control their lives, don’t you think anger is reasonable, if not obligatory?
Of course, there’s impotent rage, and then there is righteous indignation. The former leads to passivity, while there’s a chance – a slim chance, but a chance – that the latter will lead to a revolution of just the sort we need today.
Which side will you be on when it comes time?
#81 Boron – Yes, we are all losers. This is a conservative blogsite. Most of us here can see very clearly what’s going on. Others are Liberal propogandists here to say nyah, nyah. But we ARE all losers, because we know our country is being sold down the river. Our country is about to lose… and we care.
The point is, we’re SUPPOSED to be angry. The government is exaggerating a crisis in order to pass a massive spending bill inorder to pay off every one of their constituencies all at once. A trillion dollars. More than the entire cost of the Iraq war.
Boron, there has been a war going on in America for nearly a century. It is the war to transform this country from freedom to dependence. You’re neither Dem nor Pub, because you simply DON’T KNOW! You don’t have enough info. You don’t really know how things work, so you can’t see what the politcal left is doing. If you’re an independent, then you need to get more info, and choose a side. I hope you join us angry losers.
Войска ПВО: “Give it another six or seven months and that screechy broad of a first lady will start weighing in about how she is no longer proud of America again and then the avalanche will really begin.”
Spot on. Since Barry’s election, I’ve had the feeling that Carter has been re-elected, but as an extra special bonus, this time he has friends who hate America and a wife who hates..well, you know. Think I’ll go melt some more butter for the popcorn…
And Boron, if being angry makes one a loser, I’m noticing more losers in the last couple of weeks than I have in quite some time.
Here’s the answer then: A series of choices, made by people in power for people in power, egged on by people who want power, in the name of the powerless, buying off the greedy and supported en masse by the clueless, brought down much of our financial system.
That is the essential part. That tells us what we must fix.
It will help little, and perhaps hurt much, to know exactly what combination of factors constitutes a tipping point. If we think we know where the minefield is, the pander-dancers will start their routine along that line again. Better to keep them at a safe distance.
Mr. Blumer’s theme of the no-confidence game is a great one. It’s also ominous – reminding me of chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel’s recent statement: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”
However, this article does make one wrong implication: “On top of that, the administration’s proposed ‘stimulus’ solution is wholly inadequate at best, and counterproductive at worst.”
Every dollar the government spends had to be first looted from someone who produced – either directly in taxes or indirectly by inflation. Sure, we now see the crew repairing the road or putting up another inefficient windmill. But what we don’t see are all the vastly more productive people who are now more impoverished and less able to invest or spend the money according to their more rational judgment in the first place.
Yes, we see that road crew, while forgetting about all the producers who have been put out of work, and the mooching congressmen, bureaucrats, central bankers, and lobbyists who took their cut for producing nothing. Even the road itself would have been vastly better, faster and cheaper under private ownership.
No one benefits by paying his customers to buy his products, yet that is the premise of government “stimulus.”
Government “stimulus” is an oxymoron. We need pure capitalism.
#81. Boron, we are all losers in the sense that this incompetant LOSER got elected. People are finding out that experience counts and Obama can’t vote ‘present’ any longer.
On the stimulus, when Obama says “I won,” he’s out of better arguments…The president should read the transcript of the third presidential debate. He claimed his program represented “a net spending cut.” He called himself “a strong proponent of pay-as-you-go. Every dollar that I’ve proposed, I’ve proposed an additional cut so that it matches.” He added, “We need to eliminate a whole host of programs that don’t work.”
Barack Obama didn’t campaign on “extreme deficit spending”…
During the closing months of the campaign, he harped on middle class tax cuts (“95% of working people!”) & promised no spending that didn’t have concomitant pork cuts…
Even the avid blind partisan should be able to locate the glaring disingenuousness in all this.
‘I Won,’ He Explained
Too much truth (#78)
Painful
It is a very basic mistrust of individuals, with the consequent overwhelming desire to control them. The economy, the poor and needy, the this and the that, are just handy excuses.
Perpetual poverty (unsolvable and unfixable) has been the mainstay of the Democrat agenda & appeal for decades. The so called lesser folk can never effectively “improve” their lot or the agenda loses credibility.
People like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton & Teddy Kennedy have grown wealthy and prominent flogging this agenda.
Barack’s “Change” apparently means what I always thought it meant, enlisting the machinery of the federal government to accomplish the agenda of community organizing.
Why will they keep the economy in the doldrums?
Simple – they do not understand the difference between spending wisely and spending like kids let loose in a toyshop.
Creating jobs for three million community organisers or three million guys digging holes and filling them in again will stimulate nothing except, eventually, anger and frustration.
First, let’s get rid of the term “Economic Stimulus” and replace it with something a little more appropriate. “Job Bill.” I’ve listened to a lot of arguments on both sides. I’ve even checked out this article from the National Review: 50 De-Stimulating Facts (@51.)
Instead look at these sources:
This article contains a summary of what the Job Bill will do.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/stimulus/2009/02/02/summary-of-the-888-billion-stimulus-bill-under-debate-in-the-senate.html
To summarize:
The Act provides for the following critical investments:
Tax cuts for Working Families – $247 billion
Job-creating Investments in Infrastructure and Science – $165 billion
Job-creating Investments in Health – $153 billion
Job-creating Investments in Education and Training – $138 billion
Job-creating Investments for an Energy Independent America – $82 billion
Job-creating Tax Cuts for Small Businesses – $21 billion
Helping Americans Hit Hard by the Economic Crisis – $72 billion
Law Enforcement, Oversight, Other Programs – $10 billion
Here’s a breakdown from http://www.senate.gov:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:4:./temp/~c111HWUP6r::
I’d break it down further, but that would take too much time and I have a job and a life.
The point is, for once, let’s put the bickering and nitpicking aside and become realistic. Leave your ideology at the door and let’s give this thing a chance. You may not like Obama or Democrats in general. But remember we are all Americans.
Pat J.
None of those “investments” will be done in 2009 or 2010 … so tell us again how they are a stimulus for TODAYS recession ? That is a fact not a nit pick …
They are nothing but increased liberal vote buying spending … face it, its is a porkfest …
“92. Pat J:”
Sir,
All well and good; let’s set aside for the time, being ‘ideology’ (another word for a coherent philosophy providing the basic principles by means to judge, among other things, right and wrong).
When you examine history, do you find that government programs do, in fact, lead to prosperity?
The answer is, for the most part, no. The reason, among others, is that for every dollar the government takes through taxation, or invents by printing (borrowing must be paid for at some point by one of these), is either
a) a dollar not available to a private individual for spending or investing, which are what sustain and create jobs;
b) an incremental destruction of the value of all dollars in existence before the fiat creation of a new one, undermining the savings and investment that sustain and create jobs.
You can not create new wealth this way, nor create new or sustain existing employment. It never has worked, and never could.
Some evidence provided by Randall Hoven.
#92, that is quite a collection of bureaucratic blather that, when injected without appropriate controls (virtually guaranteed), will result in monumental levels of waste, fraud, and abuse.
93. Jeff
——–
Read it again. 78% of that $888 billion will be put into affect by September 30, 2010. That means the sooner it gets passed, the sooner it starts!
“That means the sooner it gets passed, the sooner it starts!”
True, and the sooner it starts, the sooner it starts deepening the crisis. At which point, there will be Recovery Plan II, then III, then another and another, until it is 1934 again.
Войска ПВО: “Give it another six or seven months and that screechy broad of a first lady will start weighing in about how she is no longer proud of America again and then the avalanche will really begin.”
Indeed. Perhaps this is off topic…OK it is…does anyone have any theories about why the first mother-in-law lives with them?
…does anyone have any theories about why the first mother-in-law lives with them?
She was/is integral to the 2 granddaughters’ lives & their responsible adult when the Obamas were on the road campaigning together. Her home is not far from theirs in Chicago.
It’s one of the few things I don’t have a problem about with the Obamas. However, “the aunt”, known to be in the country illegally and did not comport with an earlier deportation order…she, I have a problem with. She has vowed she will not return to Kenya, and so far seems to have gotten a pass from immigration authorities.
iLL GIVE YOU THE SHORT VERSION-like in Moslem and Communist countries, the Obamaskank and his minions NEED to keep a large portion of the population DUMB STUPID AND IGNORANT. They need to keep people DEPENDENT on them for there own POWER. The real reason COMMIES and MOSLEMS dislike free enterprise is SIMPLE. FREE ENTERPRISE means the people DONT NEED BIG BROTHER. JUST THAT SIMPLE.
#40 Imam Infidel-your plan makes more sense than ANYTHING commie out of the DOOFUS DUMBASS OBAMASKANK or NASTY THE BOLSHEVIK B*TCHES MOUTH. Id only add we also deport Moslems who think Sharia law should be imposed get deported along with the illegals. Believing in Sharia law means you dont support the Constitution. The constituion, not laws passed by corrupt politicians, is the law of the land.
I agree with John Galt cuz he’s the man. Democracy is the best system on Earth. In fact, it’s so good, we should try it here.
The Stimulus Bill, as proposed, is NOT RECOMMENDED by the Congressional Budget Office, whose duty it is to study effects of Congressional legislation. And this group is not made up of a political group.
This Bill should not be passed until it can get approval from the CBO.
First he has trashed the economy to remind people he must not be blamed for it.
But second, failure does not concern the revolutionary mind; it sees opportunity with miracles to be passed, and more miracles to deal with the last.
They have the precedent and the playbook.
To coin a phrase: Obama lied, jobs died!
A crisis cannot be wasted. Let’s not waste this crisis and work on getting these bozos out of office the next four years. If the 1930′s is repeating itself so can 1994.
as proved during his campaign, obama freely breaks promises, changes political course, basically does whatever he wants regardless of what he’s said in the past. to the consternation of the left and the right. this guy is a classic narcissist. originally i thought he’d have the pragmatic sense to negotiate a successful line, like Clinton. but it’s already clear that he’s a amateur, a joke, a poor leader and total lefty. good luck america, you’re gonna need it. he’ll make you wish you had jimmy carter back…..