Monday, February 2, 2009

Reality Check


Well, I have been gone for practically an eternity. Now it is apparent that my previous posts were an unrestrained exercise in futility, Barack Obama is our president. I wish our president the best of luck and sincerely hope that this is a prosperous time for the United States. I haven't given my thoughts on credit failings, financial troubles, economic contraction, or the already enacted stimuli, but now I have been pushed to act.

Currenly, the Senate is debating a 900 billion dollar "stimulus package", backed by the Obama administration. First of all, this 900 billion dollars is NOT a stimulus. The majority of the bill focuses over 600 billion dollars on new spending, and the balance is doled out in poorly structured tax cuts.

The 600 billion dollars in spending includes tremendous amounts of pork, but the stimulus itself comes in the form of infrastructure projects. Hmmm, this sounds eerily familiar. In the 1930's the New Deal was aimed at doing the exact same thing. Ready for this..... It didn't work, not in the least bit. Unemployment stayed at almost exactly the same levels from the passage of the New Deal to start of World War II. Decades of economic trial and error have proven that Keynesian fiscal stimuli are ineffective. Furthermore, the projects proposed in the Obama stimulus, that he touts as so urgent, will not come to fruition or even start for another few years. Friedman, the economist not the populist writer, concluded that government fiscal stimulus," hampered recovery from the contraction, prolonged and added to unemployment and set the stage for ever more intrusive and costly government."

So, looking beyond the pork and the waste of the bill, its premise is entirely flawed. Government spending will not create jobs and will not increase consumer spending. Consumers base their spending patterns on long-term income projections. Neither government spending nor the tax rebate checks included within the bill will positively change long-term income projections.

Now, for what truly angers me. I was pleased that House Republicans unanimously opposed this bogus piece of legislation and that ten Democrats also voted against it, but the bil still passed the House and is moving on to the Senate. Today, our President, who did not consult the opposition once in the construction of the bill, encouraged the bill's opponents to put their modest differences aside. Wait, modest differences? The implementation or timing of a small tax cut would be a modest difference, but unified opposition to a bill that doesn't accomplish any real stimulus and costs the American tax payer 900 billion dollars, I would not call that a modest difference.

Cal it arrogance, simple naivete, or even stupidity, but President Obama needs a reality check.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're an ignorant ditto-head. That's what I think, I have a M.A in history, The New Deal worked, it lowered unemployment, every year accept the one year FDR (1937) slowed up spending, the other 7 years, the New Deal lowered unemployment, every year Rush Limbaugh hack, EVERY YEAR (except 1937, ayear FDR listened to conservatives and slowed spending)

One more thing ignorant fool... in 1939 the depression was ending, the same year Hitler invaded Poland, you moron. The Great Depression ended BEFORE the war started, idiot, before we got involved idiot, in 1939, you mindless con.

This is what happens,when an ignorant Rush Limbaugh listener learns how to use acomputer.

The new Deale neded the depression, BEFORE the war started, you mindeless idiot.


Stay off the internet for now, get an education first. Fox News,Rush Limbagh and Sean Hannity do not count as education


the only problem with Obama is that he pays any attention to idiotic conservative ideologues like you. If Iwere Obama, I would ignorte you sick conservatives,100%. You brought us Bush, Hoover, Reagan, all destructivce to working America,and the economy.


Americasupportsthe NEW DEAL, FDR is alive and well, REAGAN IS DEAD, HIS IDEAS ARE DEAD. Conservatism is afailure

BFREE09 said...

First off, you insinuate that I care for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, that is a very poor assumption. Under the New Deal unemployment never fell below twenty percent--and the year that you mention, that unemployment rose, that was the year the second portion of the new deal commenced. When world war two began, 1939, unemployment was 25%. And yes I know we didn't get involvd until later but the spike in global demand arrived before we became involved.

Anonymous said...

The New Deal worked,the only ones who dispute this are right wing think tanks,and Limbaugh recites their ideas.

Hoover failed America
Coolidge failed America
Harding failed America

the New Deal set us up for 40 years of prosperity. Not opinion, fact

How do you know the New Deal prolonged the depression? You can't know, because to know that would mean you're a psychic who can predict things that never happened. So how do you know the New Deal prolonged the depression?

Who told you ? Was it National Review,WSJ or a con radio host?

History proves you wrong. Live with it man, and your wrong about 1939
the unemployment rate was 17%
in America, and this was before we entered ww2
All the conservative re-writing of history will not help you here. FACTS ARE FACTS.

Facts and history are on my side
No legitimate historian would claim the New Deal prolonged the depression.


Too much Fox noise on your end.Reality check