Thread: Stimulus Plan

Unfortunately, you've picked up a lot of bad information. It's understandable. Ever since Bush's approvals started tanking, conservative "think" tanks have started spinning things to try to salvage the brand. They've come up with such gems as "Roosevelt prolonged the Great Depression by instituting the New Deal," or "After 14 years of Republican control, it's still the Liberals' fault," and my personal favorite, "Bush isn't really a conservative."

Let's look at some facts.

Originally Posted by droche

Pork is projects and spending that support one small area or sector with little or no overall effect on other sectors. The main reason for pork spending is to increase the stature of a politician as opposed to a real need for the project or program.

You never refuted what I said on this, so I'll let this go and simply say that not all earmarks are wastes, and in any case, all the earmarks rolled up in a ball represents less than 1% of the federal budget. So the hue and cry on earmarks is merely an effort of Republican spinmeisters to divert the attention of gullible voters away from real issues and onto trivia.

Originally Posted by droche

Conservatives did not get us into this mess. It is a misnomer to call the Bush Administration conservative. They were neo-conservatives. In addition, the largest thing that caused this economic collapse was the Fannie-Mae/Freddie-Mac collapse, a large part of which was caused by the government forcing financial instituitons into making high risk mortgages, and by Fannie/Freddie, a quasi government organization, controlling a tremendous percentage of the mortgage market.

Fact One: Freddie and Fannie are a small part of the recovery effort
Fact Two: Freddie and Fannie suffered from deregulation and lack of oversight (one "conservative virtue"), and did not participate in a lot pf sub-prime loans
Fact Three: The credit crisis was centered in the private sector -- does the name "Lehman Brothers" ring a bell? -- and was enabled by Republican deregulation which allowed lending institutions to take risks with other people's money, and by the fact that the Bush administration failed to perform its regulatory duties.
Fact Four: Bush was -- and is -- a classic Reagan conservative. He followed the playbook to the letter, with deregulation, tax cuts, wealth redistribution to the rich -- right down the line. To call him anything else is typical right wing weaseling in a last ditch effort to save the brand. (I'm talking about the spinmeisters, not you.)

Originally Posted by droche

The fact that the inflation of the 60's-70's was caused by government spending dollars that they didn't have is fully supportable. Even liberal economists acknowledge that; I had one as a professor in 1972. The inflation that occurred then began and was in full gear long before the oil shocks in '74 and '79. At the time it was called "Guns and Butter." In other words, the Lyndon Johnson Administration funded the Viet Nam War and The Great Society Programs without raising taxes to pay for them. They had enough money to pay for one, but not both, and it is widely acknowledged that is what caused the inflation that followed.

This is more revisionist history. I don't know who told you that "liberal economists" agree to that, but I deal with economists every day and I assure you, it ain't so. At that time, a "liberal economist" may have said that the war was bad for the economy, because during the primary inflationary times of 1967-70, it was costing twice what the Great Society was, and wasn't even the entire military budget.

But to say that the oil shocks didn't cause inflation is simply not true. Here's the facts:



The correlation between the oil shocks and inflation is obvious, indisputable, and complete.

Another cause of inflation at the time, of course, was the Baby Boom generation entering the workplace in unprecedented numbers. Suddenly wages were way up (though marginal wages continued to decline for years), and demand for goods and services (especially housing and energy) was also way up. The result? Inflation. No brainer.

As I said, the right wing spinmasters are working overtime to try to convince a gullible public that they're not at fault. But the truth is becoming painfully obvious: Reaganomics as a concept has been completely, totally, and finally discredited. The sooner the right wing recognizes that, the sooner they'll be viable again.

There comes a time in many lives when honor and integrity demand that a man stand tall and acknowledge his bastards. Believe me, it gives me no pleasure to say that this time has come to the Republican Party. All this think-tank effort at revisionist history and weaseling will not bring the party back.

Sometimes, when the oobleck is falling faster than you can deal with, there's nothing for it but to say you're sorry. Then maybe we can move on.

j