Today’s dismal GDP report has put Democrats and their media allies into a furious spin cycle. Economists had expected a slight uptick in the economy of just over 1% growth. Instead, the Commerce Department reported that GDP in the 4th Quarter shrank by 0.1%. The left is attributing the surprise contraction to quirks in the data and a slowdown in government spending. Beyond just explaining away an inconvenient truth about the economy, they are trying to lay the groundwork to blame the GOP for automatic spending cuts set to take effect in March.
Never mind that the sequester was a bargaining ploy from Obama, Himself.
Also never mind that the sequester hasn’t even gone into effect.
Also also never mind that even if the sequester should go into effect, it will only reduce the deficit by maybe ten percent over ten years — hardly the end of the world.
The fact is, demand-side stimulus hasn’t gotten us out of this mess, not after four years, six trillion in new debt, and trillions more in money-printing by the Fed.
Of course the first Stimulus didn’t go to “infrastructure” either – it was on random stuff. I saw how a lot of it was spent: research grants, buying equipment, even paying contractors to do support tasks for agencies. None of it added to “infrastructure” as normally defined and none added any real jobs – just prolonged existing ones. Sooner or later that runs out and we’re at the place we would have been months ago. Only this time with even more debt.
None of it added to “infrastructure” as normally defined. . . .
None of it added up period. Even after you add in the green boondoggles to your list above it doesn’t account for $850 billion. Where did tens — and perhaps hundreds — of billions of dollars go?
We have a president trying to rule (not govern) by fiat, passing out executive orders like jello shots at Spring Break, bypassing Congress at almost every turn, and yet he’s powerless against a bunch of schmucks who barely control one branch of Congress?
Democrats and their supporters remind me of criminals trying to wriggle out of a conviction: they’re willing to make themselves look stupid and pathetic and crazy to get out of a tight spot.