My Pet Crisis
When President Bush reacted calmly at Emma E. Booker on September 11, I thought, this is how a president should act. It goes along with why I think debates suck. But to many people, remaining calm during a crisis and taking time to get the facts was a sign of indecision rather than reflection. Well, those folks now have their president. There’s no time to read the trillion dollars to see where it’s going nor to discuss whether it’s a stimulus package or a generational debt package, “we don't have a moment to spare”, “we can’t afford to wait”.
President Obama needs a Pet Goat moment. He—and congress—needs to take some time out to read. A trillion dollars of spending needs discussion. Someone is eventually going to need to pay this off. And much of it looks less like “stimulus” than the creation of new government programs that will continue to need more and more spending. It’s looking a lot like the earmarks he spoke out against, with the same problems: no discussion, no accountability, and lots of money.
A crisis is the worst time for committees to make quick decisions. There’s too much inertia towards doing the wrong thing. When a crisis happens, there’s a good chance we were doing something wrong to bring about the crisis. A panicked response will mean we continue doing the same things that brought us to the crisis. Such as spending money we can’t afford to fix the problem we created by spending money we couldn’t afford.
The “stimulus” plan appears to be, “we know we’re in a recession now and you don’t have enough money, so we’re going to make the money you do have worth less.”
If the Republicans had shown this backbone when they were in power, we wouldn’t be in this mess (and they might still be in power); hopefully they can remember this in the future. I'm inclined to agree with them here, though. First, we should not be borrowing this much money. Second, if we truly want to stimulate the economy we’d simplify our taxes and we’d get rid of the red tape that strangles new businesses—and new jobs. Third, if we do want to borrow money to “stimulate” the economy, it should be on things that only need to be done once rather than ongoing programs, and it should be spent on physical improvements rather than on political lobbyists. But we really just shouldn’t be borrowing this much money.
- The Pet Goat
- “The Pet Goat is the story of a girl’s pet goat that eats everything in its path.” Sounds like congress.
- Buy Reading Mastery - Level 2 Storybook 1
- Home of the infamous pet goat.
- Not a Moment to Spare?
- “Swift and bold action” is Washington’s formula for every real and perceived crisis.
- Gibbs: We Can’t Be Expected to Weed Out All the Silly Spending
- “Why not take the money marked for ‘smoking cessation’ and give it to people who are out of work?” “We can’t afford to wait. We have to act.”
- Timidity in the Face of Fiscal Recklessness Is No Vice
- From the comments: “Any time you hear someone say ‘you can’t afford not to buy this right now’, they’re trying to screw you.”
- Obama’s Spokesman Gibbs: We Just Don’t Have the Time to Patrol the Stimulus for Wasteful Spending
- “Not only is the money being pissed away now, the bill commits us to pissing away future dollars, too. The nice thing about fixing a bridge is that once it’s fixed, there is no ongoing demand for additional federal dollars every year. But the crap the Democrats are spending your money on are, of course, intended to be—and will become—permanent additions to the federal budget. And will increase every fucking year.”
- Oh, By the Way, Three Years Ago We Had a Massive Stimulus for Infrastructure… How Did That Work Out?
- “Fiscal restraint makes sense for both parties, then. And yet neither seems terribly capable of it. Neither party much likes the status quo, and yet neither can manage the fiscal restraint necessary to achieve their longer-term goals. Keep spending low for a number of years and we’ll have a small surplus, and Republicans can urge a tax cut. And Democrats can urge a big, glittery new spending plan like health coverage.”
- A 40-Year Wish List
- “Most of the rest of this project spending will go to such things as renewable energy funding ($8 billion) or mass transit ($6 billion) that have a low or negative return on investment. Most urban transit systems are so badly managed that their fares cover less than half of their costs. However, the people who operate these systems belong to public-employee unions that are campaign contributors to… guess which party?”
- Solo contendere
- “What was Obama thinking? He promised post-partisanship—he delivered a one-sided crap sandwich.”
- The Democratic Porkfest Bill of 2009
- The Wall Street Journal calls it the “40-year Wish List”. Michelle calls it the “Generational Theft Act”. Others have started calling it the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Debt Act. Whatever name one gives it, the least likely is stimulus. The WSJ calculates that no more than 12 cents on the dollar in the trillion-dollar whale goes to actual economic stimulus, and that the rest go to Democratic wish lists for electoral advantage.”
- Televised debates discourage intelligent discussion
- Debates are a spectacle designed to trivialize the issues facing the community. And they are counter-productive because they specifically select for candidates who bullshit their way through the decision-making process rather than act deliberately and responsibly.
- Fiscal Reality Central
- “We do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. To improve the economy, policy makers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.”
- Fred Thompson explicates the economy
- Fred Thompson explains the economic bailout to those of us unable to understand the complexities of the issue.
More taxes
- Simple, obvious, and unobstructive: minimize the value-minus of taxes
- There is no value-added in taxes, but we can minimize the loss of value.
- Tax individuals, not organizations
- Taxes on businesses are just a way of hiding taxes so that people don’t know they’re being taxed.
- Geithner-Daschle-Rangel tax simplification act of 2009
- Here’s a way for the Republicans to be bipartisan: help Democrats overcome their tax misfilings.
- What does 1.2 trillion dollars buy?
- What can you get for 1.2 trillion nowadays? How about two and a half years of no employer-side payroll taxes?
- Even the experts can’t do their taxes
- When even the head of the I.R.S. can’t do his own taxes, it’s time to simplify them.
- Nine more pages with the topic taxes, and other related pages
More Crisifying
- Can the president take responsibility for market rises?
- If the president gets blamed when the market falls, can he take credit when it rises?
- Crisis quote of the day
- Congress: if you aren’t willing to go broke, we’ll go broke for you.
- What does 1.2 trillion dollars buy?
- What can you get for 1.2 trillion nowadays? How about two and a half years of no employer-side payroll taxes?
- Upturns with no downturns
- A pessimistic clock might be right twice a day; it might not be. It’s hard to tell when the clock doesn’t even use the same numbers we’re used to.
- Blaming the financial crisis on the reformers
- Change, hope, and unmitigated gall. McCain, Bush, and Palin were right about Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Now can we start listening to them on social security?