A couple of random thoughts about the Obamabudget and the continued absurdity of the GOP.
Number 1
Obamas stimulus is huge, its about as socialist as anything since the New Deal, and the fact that the and the Dems among other media spinsters keep comparing it to the New Deal should not make anyone happy. The reality is that while we need the New Deal to dig us out of the Depression, it never left us and created systems that reinforce rather than mitigate inequality. Social security is simply not as good as private investment in its return and costs you pay that comes out of your paycheck in order to make a pretty piss-poor investment because the return sucks. Welfare does not help people get to work, it keeps them from it. If you make too much, which is still not enough to live on, your welfare goes away. So its better to make less and have more kids to boost up that welfare check. Same thing with unemployment. It reinforces failure and apathy rather than success and productivity. It creates a culture of free-riding which sucks the life out of the economy and over-burdens the government at the same time.
Number 2
The GOP has not devised a pragmatic or even tangible alternative. They are responsible for getting us here and apologies in the "kinneygarden" speak of Bobby Jindal during his bizarre response to Obamas eloquent defense of a socialist bill are useless and empty. GOP frontman Michael Steele has only said that Obamas bill will create work but not the jobs we need. His point is that it will not spur the private sector since the government will be supplying the work. Rather than just say that, he leaves us confused. But maybe he does not know what he is talking about either. At any rate, the only alternative that the GOP has offered is tax cuts. Mind you that tax cuts are in the current bill as well. Those tax incentives are about$300 billion of the total package. So what have you done for me lately GOP? Nothing. People are organizing "Tea Parties" this Friday to oppose the bill. Are they also opposing the tax cuts? They should rip up their checks when they get them to make a real statement. Stupid. Protest without a pragmatic alternative and a solid contingent of people willing to go to work to change something is useless. So quityerbitchin.
Number 3
"Only" 5 billion of the stimulus bill are considered "earmarks." Remember earmarks? They were the single place that McCain offered to cut the federal budget at a total of 17 billion. One persons earmark is another persons pothole, rotting school, or land for a windmill. Who gives a shit if there are 9000 of them identified? If you want them out and that is all you continue to harp about, get rid of that 300 billion dollar tax incentive in the bill too and play with whats left. Otherwise it continues to be the GOP response of unhelpful partisan contempt – a party that still has problems responding to a nation that kicked them in the ass this past November and the two years prior to that.
Number 4
The idea that we should just let foreclosures continue is stupid and populist for people who have no credible alternative to offer. Lets say I have a nice home, have made my payments, made some improvements, and have a good deal of equity invested in the home. Thats equity that in this market you literally have to work for where in 1999 all you had to do was move in. Now lets say that five of the homes on your block foreclose. Guess what happens to all that equity? Flushed right down the foreclosure toilet. Hope you are comfortable in that home now and have no plans to sell it since you lost the value you worked hard to attain.
Finally
I am fine with allowing people to fail who make bad choices in life. However, our economy is like a big web. If one strand falls, the others are much weaker. The fact is that when housing goes weak, you can bet the rest of the economy sucks too. Donald Trump even said today that "this is the worst economy (he has) seen." The GOP is not only short-sighted in their criticism, but they offer no pragmatic alternatives – 0ther than tax cuts and telling people to consume goods with money they still do not have in spite of said tax cut. Because that helped before.
This is not the time to look for handouts or bitch about who is in office. Take the money you are given, stop buying crap you dont need, invest it, pay down your debt, put money in liquid accounts that bear interest, stop using credit cards, buy what you actually have money to purchase. Find other revenue streams to pay off debt. Be more productive rather than less productive. the solution to all this crap is simple. No one really wants to work anymore and defer gratification to do it. So suck on that America. And I hope the GOP continues its path of distintigration and irrelevance so that we can get a real alternative party in a legitimate position of power. They are a hollow shell with a loud whine and nothing more.
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