Economic stimulus, or just another government give-a-way?

GWB just announced that he wants the government to spend $100,000,000,000 in economic stimulation courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers.

But, what purpose does it serve (other than election year politics) to simply give money away in order to stimulate an economy that has:

Consumers that are deep in debt;

Mortgages that are worth more than the houses they are on due to the housing bubble;

Consumers that are dependent on cheap imports while domestic labor refuses to accept equally cheap wages;

Energy supplies that must be imported from hostile countries;

Rising unemployment at the same time we have rising inflation?


Instead of simply giving away money, why not offer taxpayer rebates for anyone who buys a domestically produced automobile that uses a non-fossil fuel?

Instead of simply giving away money, why not lower corporate tax rates to encourage the establishment of factories that can turn garbage into consumer products?

Why not regulate the banking and mortgage industry so mortgage values won't be able to grow faster than the actual value of the properties that are mortgaged?

Why not stimulate the economy by tending to our economic infrastructure by repairing/rebuilding bridges and storm drains and building things like a high-speed rail system from coast to ooast?

Also b/c the Republican mantra and goal is to starve the gov't of money in order to shrink it in size.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Also b/c the Republican mantra and goal is to starve the gov't of money in order to shrink it in size.

And just when have Republicans ever done this? I wish I lived in your world.

flaja wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Also b/c the Republican mantra and goal is to starve the gov't of money in order to shrink it in size.

And just when have Republicans ever done this? I wish I lived in your world.

Oh, it's their mantra and goal, but not what the money-hungry amongst them do.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Also b/c the Republican mantra and goal is to starve the gov't of money in order to shrink it in size.

And just when have Republicans ever done this? I wish I lived in your world.

flaja wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Also b/c the Republican mantra and goal is to starve the gov't of money in order to shrink it in size.

And just when have Republicans ever done this? I wish I lived in your world.

So does everyone else, that is why a decent home here still sells for a half million.

We are to about see how much George Bush really believes the “supply side” mumbo-jumbo he’s been spouting for the last seven years. Last week’s Labor Department report confirmed that unemployment is on the rise (5%) and that corrective action will be required to avoid a long and painful recession.

There’s a good chance that the Chameleon in Chief will jettison his “trickle down” doctrine for more conventional Keynesian remedies like slashing interest rates, government programs, and tax relief to middle and low-income people.

The goal is to rev up sagging consumer spending and slow down business contraction.

Ironically, the UK Telegraph dubbed the stimulus plan Bush’s “New Deal.” It’s a shocking about-face for a president that has been clobbering the middle class since he took office and who balks at even providing temporary shelter for disaster victims.

During the 1920s a political-economy experiencing increased productivity did not allow its benefits to "trickle down" to the broad mass of working people. Too much money went into too few hands too quickly. America in the Teapot Dome-Harding-Coolidge-Hoover years, was a lot like America in the Abramoff-Bush-Cheney-Greenspan years.

Now that Wall Street has finally hit the skids as a result of the disastrous class-warfare policies the investor class and its puppets in the form of George W. Bush and Alan Greenspan unleashed on the American people, maybe -- just maybe -- all of those Republican charlatans who were pushing hard for Social Security privatization will finally shut their traps and admit that their ideologically-driven assault on the vestiges of FDR's New Deal was a failure and a fraud.