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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Drew, I think you are missing the point about Social Security. I would argue that it is the one unabashed success of the New Deal. It lifted millions of seniors out of poverty and has continued to guarantee a floor under every generation of retirees, in addition to providing income for children who lose a working parent. The best part about it is that it isn't means-tested in any way, and it never should be in my opinion. But it was never designed as a retirement program to take the place of personal savings and private investment, and there is nothing to keep anyone who is fortunate enough to have a job and be able to save from investing for their own retirement. And I must say that when you talk about welfare you sound a lot like some of my right-wing relates who live in central PA. Where is the evidence that there is any statistically significant number of people who choose not to work so they can stay on welfare? Especially since welfare reform was enacted under Clinton? Same with unemployment. Show me the evidence. I agree mostly with the rest.
Drew,
I have not read all of Obama's budget as of yet. I doubt I will read it all because I get confused after a sentance or two of the leaglize. Yet, the media seems to be painting a fairly clear picture of what it contains. I agree with your sumation that the budget is making our country more and more socialist. The comparision to the New Deal does not make me happy. THe New Deal has made our whole nation an entitlement people. Even our busniess have become entitlement people. When things went wrong, they went to the government for the bailout.
Yes, the GOP has not put forward a real answer to hte problem. I feel that neither the Dems or the GOP will ever get their heads out of their buts and give a real solution. They are all part of the problem and will not listen to real people.
Thanks for your thoughts, Matt
Jay,
Thanks for the comments. Regarding SS, I don't disagree that it did what it needed to do. But the return on the investment is not what it should be and we can do better. Here is one article that argues a pretty solid case: http://www.cato.org/pubs/ssps/ssp7.html; here is also a website for a project designed to study the issue and create better alternatives: http://www.socialsecurity.org/.
Regarding welfare, the work of Michael Tanner has been excellent. Here is a testimony that discusses some of the problems of welfare including some data: http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-ta3-9.html. Here is a link to his book on the issue: http://www.amazon.com/Poverty-Welfare-Helping-O....
Drew,
I can't imagine what dire straits the country would be in if Bush had pushed through privatization of SS. Here is an article in Bloomberg about Italy, which did go the Bush route: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109.... I guess this is just a philosophical difference but I am happy to pay my SS taxes to make sure that my parents have a financial safety net, just as they did for their parents. I want it to be as safe an investment as possible. In any case, politically it is a dead issue thanks to the market crash.
Tanner's welfare article is pre-welfare reform. I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on it. But again, I would challenge the notion that welfare keeps people from getting work. perhaps that was true for some under the old system; perhaps for a few today. But welfare rolls are swelling right now and it isn't people looking to live on the dole.
Loved point 1, but I do think much of the stimulus bill amounts to paying drunks to go to the bar.
Sadly for a right winger, point 2 seems mostly true to me also. There is more to conservatism than tax cutting, but today's conservatives – having been educated in America's government schools – don't know what there values are or where they came from, nor can they explain anything. Like Europe, we seem to be headed to a future where conservatism becomes extinct and then the name is recycled to apply to a particularly obnoxious strand of leftism. The only conservative president during the last 100 years was Reagan, but you won't learn that in school.
The real problem is that both Hoover and Bush were progressives, painted as right wing extremists for political scoring points. This paved the way for "hope", "change" and populist ultra-progressivism. Good thing my hope is in heaven.
Loved point 1, but I do think much of the stimulus bill amounts to paying drunks to go to the bar.
Sadly for a right winger, point 2 seems mostly true to me also. There is more to conservatism than tax cutting, but today's conservatives – having been educated in America's government schools – don't know what there values are or where they came from, nor can they explain anything. Like Europe, we seem to be headed to a future where conservatism becomes extinct and then the name is recycled to apply to a particularly obnoxious strand of leftism. The only conservative president during the last 100 years was Reagan, but you won't learn that in school.
The real problem is that both Hoover and Bush were progressives, painted as right wing extremists for political scoring points. This paved the way for "hope", "change" and populist ultra-progressivism. Good thing my hope is in heaven.