Posted on 09/08/2010 6:34:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Leadership: The Obama administration's latest idea for "stimulating" the economy is - you guessed it - more spending. Is this just a campaign ploy, or is the White House ruining the economy on purpose?
The president's latest plan calls for another $50 billion in stimulus for infrastructure. As the White House puts it, this represents a "bold vision for renewing and expanding our transportation infrastructure - in a plan that combines a long-term vision for the future with new investments."
But why in the world do we need another stimulus when we're not even close to exhausting the funds allocated for the last one?
According to Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, $275 billion of the initial $787 billion cost of that stimulus remains unspent. And of the $512 billion that has been spent, just $18.5 billion - or less than 7% - has been paid out by the Transportation Department, the main government infrastructure provider.
This is strange, since the stimulus was originally sold to us as a way to create "shovel-ready" jobs on infrastructure. Instead, much of the money was drained away for financially strapped states to keep their public unions and Medicaid programs afloat.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
People are catching on.
Obama is just “creating and a saving”, “saving and a creating” mo jobs!
That’s how he doos it!
We’re in the midst of taxation without representation on a Gargantuan scale never seen in the history of humankind. Massive taxes on a population that has absolutely ZERO representation. We know this as a fact because this population for the most part hasn’t even been born yet.
IBD Observes — Since the 2008 recession:
* Federal employment has jumped by 10%, or nearly 200,000 positions,
* Private-sector employment has plunged 7%, or 7.8 million jobs.
* Massive spending and an unprecedented expansion of the role of the U.S. government in the American economy.
* CBO Estimate of spending for the next 10 years: $44.5 trillion from 2010 to 2020 - an 82% jump from $24.5 trillion spent in the last decade.
CONCLUSION :
* Big Government and its unions are the main beneficiaries of the “stimulus”.
* The real aim of the Democratic stimulus is NOT jobs or infrastructure or any other real-world accomplishment, but to INCREASE THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT.
IBD Observes — Since the 2008 recession:
* Federal employment has jumped by 10%, or nearly 200,000 positions,
* Private-sector employment has plunged 7%, or 7.8 million jobs.
* Massive spending and an unprecedented expansion of the role of the U.S. government in the American economy.
* CBO Estimate of spending for the next 10 years: $44.5 trillion from 2010 to 2020 - an 82% jump from $24.5 trillion spent in the last decade.
CONCLUSION :
* Big Government and its unions are the main beneficiaries of the “stimulus”.
* The real aim of the Democratic stimulus is NOT jobs or infrastructure or any other real-world accomplishment, but to INCREASE THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT.
Since small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy, no recover will come as long as those conditions exist.
The economy follows gas prices...which were under a dollar per gallon at the end of the 90s...then went over $4 a gallon in 2008—which crashed the economy and consumer confidence....then prices fell in 2009 and the economy recovered when they fell to $1.60....and then died into “stagflation” in 2010 when gas prices rose over $2.50 again and are rising..
Meanwhile, Obama and the Democrats have put all their eggs in one basket by trying to revive the housing and car buyinbg markets-—which are the least likely markets to move because they require big cash outlays and debt financing.
Who wants to put out a bunch of cash and go more into debt when he doesn’t know if he’ll have a job next year.?.....so people are saving money and paying off debt.....
I confess that I never really thought of it in quite that way. Excellent point.
I sleep well at night knowing my great-great-grandchildren have a solid case for REPARATIONS!
(/sarc)
Nothing more than a bribe or a sop to unions in order for them to be energized to vote in November. That is all it is.
As my High School and College writing instructors taught me many moons ago, "TRITE, HACKNEYED, and CLICHED -- F"
Democrat (and usually Republican) "bold vision" always comes down to spending MY money on things I DO NOT WANT and the country DOES NOT NEED.
The National Review observes that Obama’s latest proposal smacks of desperation and panic.
Obama knows it is losing its fight to let certain of the Bush tax cuts expire — even though it now has explicitly ruled out a compromise on extending them — and it is making one last push to buy leverage for its position by offering “targeted” tax cuts to the business community.
“Targeted” is one of this administration’s favorite words, second only to “inherited,” as in, “To address the severe crisis he inherited, President Obama pushed for a stimulus that was timely, targeted, and temporary.”
But what we have learned from the stimulus is that Congress has exceptionally bad aim, and that temporary measures to boost the economy do little more than steal demand from the future.
The Cash for Clunkers program boosted car sales for the two-month window of its existence, but it was followed by a steep drop a few months later: Average the two time periods together and you get no noticeable change in demand. The temporary Homebuyers Tax Credit had a similar effect on home sales, with transactions spiking the month before the credit expired and then plummeting in the months after.
Having spent the last 18 months binging on stimulus sugar and enduring the consequent crashes, Obama suggests we return to the cookie jar with a temporary credit that would allow businesses to take an immediate 100 percent deduction for new capital and equipment expenditures made between now and the end of 2011. A permanent credit of this sort might make sense as an option for businesses, but a temporary credit is a bad idea.
Just as Cash for Clunkers and the Homebuyers Tax Credit distorted demand for cars and homes without really stimulating it, a temporary deduction for capital expenditures would encourage firms that were already planning on building new plants or buying new equipment at some point to make those investments in 2011 rather than 2012, but it probably wouldn’t be enough to persuade them to invest in the absence of such plans.
I said this before and I’ll say it again :
There are 3 “F’s” to a good tax code that will boost the economy and make for long term prosperity :
* FIX IT (Make it low and competitive)
* FLATTEN IT ( make it simple and understandable )
* FORGET IT (make it permament and don’t mess with it. Messing with it will only cause UNCERTAINTY, which is certainly what’s happening now).
Cloward-Piven...IMHO On purpose
Private-sector employment has plunged 7%, or 7.8 million jobs.
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Obama is doing just what he planned with the economy. His goals are in sight. Everyone will either be employed by the government; dependent on the government or a lamp shade.
Liar = Obama.
Cheater = Feds.
Thief = Congress.
Con artist = Piss-Stream Media.
Throw 'em all out.
Hopefully coming to a prison near you soon.
When you give a dumb and dangerous idiot power deadly things are sure to follow.
Oh come on, of course the new stimulus will work. He’s making the campaign speech in OHIO.
LOL
I still have not seen a detail of just exactly where the over $800 BILLION stimulus went...
I do know that what went to financial institutions was loans only- & is being paid back with interest that is considered usury in most states. IF that money +++ interest is being paid back-—is that money now being targeted for use in another ‘stimulus’ or has there been graft & stealing at the top & that money is gone?
The Cash for Clunkers program boosted car sales for the two-month window of its existence”
A thread here in the past month stated that over 22,000 claims by dealers have not yet been paid. The ‘rebate’ or whatever you call it was either $3500 or $4500, depending on the car you bought. If you average that to $4000, then the dealers are still owed about $88 MILLION & are still waiting. The deals cannot bereversed- the trade in cars have been destroyed & the new cars have been driven for over a year.
After closing most of the car dealers in the USA, NObama is stiffing the remaining ones.
Anyone wonder why no one believes what Fibbs- the press secretary —says? Or NObama?
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