Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: Shoving Through the Stimulus Bill
WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 09: U.S. President Barack Obama walks toward Marine One before departing the White House on February 9, 2009 in Washington, DC. President Obama is travelling to Elkhart, Indiana to speak about the economy and his stimulus bill.
Obama is on the road this week telling Americans about how his stimulus package will work, but only if it’s passed fast. The package has undergone some major changes since making its way through the house. Mostly cutbacks to spending programs and a small increase in tax credits.
Although many economists agree that something must be done about the economy and increased government spending is the correct approach, Obama is saying that catastrophe will result if the bill is not passed soon.
Well, I am in agreement with the economists and am frustrated by what is getting cut as the bill makes its way through the Senate, but I also know we should all be wary when the government tells its people that things must be pushed through fast, “or else…”
That’s how the U.S. got into the war in Iraq. It is also the general theme of the book, The Shock Doctrine, which explains that, throughout history, governments have used moments of crisis to push through legislation that is otherwise unpopular. The voters are too scared and focused on their own troubles to oppose the measures.
According to the Huffington Post, economists are starting to decry the latest cuts to the stimulus bill. According to University of Texas economist James GalbraithÂ
“The behavior of the so-called bipartisan group has been outrageous. On the economics, they are pretending to know things they can’t possibly know: specifically, (a) how deep and serious the crisis actually is, and (b) what is ’stimulus’ and what is not. The reality is, professional economists have no clear idea how bad things can get….. The cutbacks to state aid have every potential of being disastrous. What they really reflect is the indifference of people who represent places like Nebraska and Maine to what goes on in New York or California.”
The debate that first led to cutbacks, could also lead to a popular movement to re-insert the cut measures into the final version of the bill. The point is that debate is a good idea and it might lead to trimming of wasteful spending and it also might lead to more support for the unprecedented social spending included in the Obama version of an economic solution.
I am as frustrated as the next person about the back and forth that is going on in the Senate. At the same time, I think taking time with legislation is a good thing. And anytime a government tells me to act fast or else… I take a moment to stop, think and decide if what they’re proposing is really what I want.
Nationwide gay marriage would be one thing that be some help to stimulate sluggish state economies. Just one wedding alone entails spending on this, that and the next wonderful thing like elegant or formal clothes, flowers, hairstyling, catering, cake, dance band, renting a space maybe, wedding invitation cards, photography, honeymooning, guests, friends and family booking hotel rooms, rental cars, planes and trains and doing each his and her own extra spending, maybe a little sightseeing on the side when time permits etc. Multiply that times thousands of gay couples throughout the land wanting to get married.
I already spend for basic things I need because I need them and no consumer spending at all but while avoiding unpaid credit card debt is also a good way to help the economy.
A little spending on everyone’s part helps keep some people employed and helps to better ensure that some of the things and people you need are still there when you need them.
I will buy a new car one day, but am saving (for about 2 years) a bit each month toward it to avoid being debt financing it each month paying out interest. I plan to buy this car outright with a trade in, some haggling and owe nothing more.
As for scarves and other items I need, I knit them each night (while I watch TV) from yarn I have in the house.
But back to the current situation that Obama and Congress is looking at, the remedy may or may not produce results and Obama owned up to that, but like he said, we don’t have the luxury to go to inaction and paralysis. To do nothing, will mean the end of our country. But at the same time, experience, much thought and getting the people of this land to work together must go into this.
We can’t afford to have our towns and cities shut down and leave our people hungry, desperate, unable to pay bills, no employment, no banks, no grocery stores, untimately no police, fire and ambulance, etc.
With no jobs, people can’t pay their bills, thus companies, stores and banks go under.
Need a little extra stimulus?
Segment the US population by income. You find a disproportionate number of gay people/couples toward the higher end. Better-yet, much of this income is disposable (no kids, nannies, playpens, private school).
Figure: 330M population, 6% gay = 19.8M gay people…if 5% are coupled and ready for marriage…that’s 1 million marriages waiting to happen.
At $15 – $20k per marriage (including travel, music, flowers, cakes, cards, hair, clothes, honeymoons, etc.) thats $20,000 x 1 million potential marriages.
That’s $20 billion of stimulus, spread across the country, and across many different sectors…and it costs the taxpayer nothing.
What few seem to take seriously, is that ‘we the people’ ARE the government… many inspiring speeches given by Obama spoke loudly, not only addressing this very issue, but emphasizing it so that we all understood that he was going to need each and every one of us… ‘yes we can’!!!
The irony, for me, is not that the Dems want a larger percentage going to stimulous spending, or that the Repubs want the larger percentage going to tax cuts for the rich and/or ‘Big’ business. For those of us that live in the ‘real’ world, and that IS most of us, it’s the attempt by Repubs to ignore the FACTS of the last eight years of failed policies that got us where we are economically, and that includes their deficit spending that FAR surpassed any ability to NOW create an image of fiscal conservatives worried about spending.
Where was this ‘concern’ over deficit spending when they bailed out the Banks with little to no oversight or accountability? … where was the outrage over Executive salaries and bonuses paid with taxpayer dollars, despite losing trillions based on a job performance of absolute failure to perform?… where was the concern of fiscal conservatives that demanded these giveaways to happen ‘immediately or else’?
Why, when we are looking at 500 thousand, plus, jobs being lost every month, month after month after month, for how many month’s now, are they suddenly outraged over the current ‘Democratic’ stimulous package aimed at helping ‘we the people’?… and why is it suddenly reckless and wasteful spending when we are talking about Unemployment Insurance, and why are they babbling on and on about cutting ‘Entitlement’ spending?… but Corporate Entitlement programs are a-ok, but not for the taxpayers ? … and heavens to Betsy, don’t even talk about the wasteful infastructure spending, or God for bid, require these new infastructure jobs be built with American workers, using American products… like steel, etc. ??? How GASTLY Un-American… that’s like all ‘protectionist’ and stuff !
Sorry, but I don’t feel that ‘we the people’ need to apologize for having to do some unpopular things that Republicans don’t like, and since we elected Obama and the Dems specifically for change AWAY from the Neocon agenda that got us where we are today, not ONE of us needs to control our demands for that change to happen whether the Neocons like it or not.
The employee, the consumer, and the taxpayer are ALL one and the same person. Economics 101 taught all of us that if the employee is gone, you don’t have a consumer or a taxpayer, and without consumer demand, your supply side economics is worth a BIG ZERO… even when you ship it in from China utilizing slave and slave child labor, the piper will eventually have to be paid. There is no ‘free’ in anything, including Free Trade.
The illusory credit of business and the private industry suddenly disappeared when the housing bubble popped, and the entire structure of our economy is crashing down into the space. There is NOTHING to fill this gaping hole now except government credit. Yeah, it sucks and is financially irresponsible (just like the unregulated private debt was that got us to this point). But the alternative would be to continue having industries and business fall into this black hole–possibly leading to another Great Depression. Although $800 billion isn’t much to prop up the market, it’s better than nothing.
TAX CUTS, MY AUNT FANNIE!
My son hasn’t worked in MONTHS. HE doesn’t need a fraakin’ TAX CUT; he needs a JOB.
NOT ONE MORE PENNY FOR CORPORATE WELFARE! Let THEM ride the bus and eat day-old bread, for a change.
MOST of the “captains of industry” in this country OUGHT to be in JAIL for FRAUD and ROBBERY!
Problem is, no one has any other solution to this. All the republicans can do is say “tax cuts!” over and over, like it actually means anything — but we know that tax cuts *dont* work. And at least this one has some kind of accountability, something the last 800 billion boondongle didnt.
But clearly we have to do *something*. Over a half million jobs disappeared in the last two months, thanks to the previous administration’s lax attitude towards the people in control of our finances. So unless someone has something else to put on the table, I’d say we have little choice but to run with this one.
I think if there was reasonable consensus that the stimulus would provide a short-term boost that would save the economy without damaging the future too much, it would make sense. But nobody really is confident what it will do, and it will most certainly damage our kids’ and grand-kids’ adult lives as much as Bush’s wars have. Just how many trillions of dollars of debt do you think the world will permit the US to get away with? At some point, these lenders will expect their money back (plus interest). Is the US simply planning to declare bankruptcy?