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Stimulus spending

• 03.04.10
  Unseriously, we need to cut the deficit
  Bash the Messenger, Stimulus spending, Sustainability (0)

  The next time anyone suggests that we take seriously something that President Obama said, we should point to the media attack on Jim Bunning. The next time anyone suggests that we need higher taxes to pay for important social programs, or to bring down the deficit, or anything else, we should point to the media attack on Jim Bunning. The scandalous behavior of the media and everyone else who participated in the orchestrated smear campaign on the Senator from Kentucky shows the pointlessness of any of this. I say orchestrated, because there is no way that ...
  
  
• 02.26.10
  Profile in Courage
  Bash the Messenger, Stimulus spending (0)

  One courageous Senator, Jim Bunning, wants to extend unemployment benefits and COBRA to unemployed workers, and at the same time help President Obama bring the budget deficit under control. But the rest of his colleagues are too stingy and short-sighted to do it. So far I haven't found a single newspaper that has reported on this conflict.
  
  
• 01.31.10
  Alchemy
  Stimulus spending (0)

  Best line of the day is from George Will: He called Wednesday for a third stimulus (the first was his predecessor's, in February 2008) although the S-word has been banished in favor of "jobs bill." It will inject into the economy money that government siphons from the economy, thereby somehow creating jobs. And you thought alchemy was strange.
  
  
• 09.20.09
  Keynes in Argentina
  Stimulus spending (0)

  I wonder if this is what John Maynard Keynes meant when he said, "In the long run we are all dead." From the Washington Post: "Despair in Once-Proud Argentina : After Economic Collapse, Deep Poverty Makes Dignity a Casualty" by By Anthony Faiola Argentines have watched, horrified, as the meltdown dissolved more than their pocketbooks. Even the rich have been affected in their own way. The tragedy has struck hardest, however, among the middle class, the urban poor and the dirt farmers. Their parts of this once-proud society appear to have collapsed -- a cave-in so complete as to ...
  
  
• 08.08.09
  Can I trade my congressman for a clunker?
  Netzero gas tax, Stimulus spending (0)

  It's about time for us to get a new car to replace our one-and-only car, a venerable 1998 Toyota Corolla. But thanks to idiot politicians and their cash-for-clunkers program, now is a bad time to buy. Not only do we not get in on a cash-for-a-clunker deal, but we have to pay extra taxes so other people can trade in their clunkers. Not only that, but the people who ARE trading their clunkers in are causing shortages of new cars. It isn't that we want a new car. We want a low-mileage used ...
  
  
• 08.05.09
  Mission accomplished!
  Stimulus spending, Words from President Obama (0)

  Obama was in Wakarusa today, declaring victory. ("In Indiana, Obama declares stimulus is working") It kind of reminds one of George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech. The first part of the week we had been staying in Nappanee, 6 miles to the south, and at breakfast someone had mentioned that it was hard to get around up there because the President was coming. If I had arranged another day of vacation it would have been nice to ride my bike up there with some protest signs and then listen to leftwing operatives explain where ...
  
  
• 08.01.09
  Trickle-down clunkers
  Bailouts, Stimulus spending (0)

  Some of the descriptions of the the cash-for-clunkers program make it sound like an attempt to show that trickle-down economics works, after all. The money goes from the government to dealers, not from government to customers. Dealers of course use the money (or rather, the hope of getting reimbursed) as a way to lower prices and compete for customers. How much of the discount actually ends up in consumer hands will be hard to say, given that the dealer price from which a discount is taken is a squishy concept at best. ...
  
  
• 07.15.09
  Suppressing dissent: Your tax dollars at work
  Bailouts, Stimulus spending (0)

  If there is any doubt as to what federal bailout money is intended to purchase, the Obama administration's behavior towards Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona is telling us plainly: The money is intended to buy political obedience and to suppress dissent. The same will be true of federal money spent to bail us out of health care difficulties.
  
  
• 04.06.09
  How to broaden a reporter’s mind?
  Bash the Messenger, Stimulus spending (0)

  "GM's fate, government response will determine if job-letting is over." That's the headline on yet another opinion piece in Sunday's Kalamazoo Gazette, this one by Peter Luke. Here's the online version. It's headlined somewhat differently: "As GM, Chrysler downsizing looms, White House must find ways to keep Michigan employed." Like Rick Haglund and indeed like most newspaper people, Luke's outlook is more government-centric than people-centric. An example is the closing paragraphs of his article: The president's overseer for the recovery of auto communities, former MSU economist Ed Montgomery, visited Michigan last week to say Obama is "committed to ...
  
  
• 03.16.09
  Horse trading
  Limits on government power, Stimulus spending, Sustainability (3)

  Horses may be going hungry, but here's some food for thought. It's inspired by a front page story in Sunday's Kalamazoo Gazette. The article explains that people can't afford to take care of their horses, but they're required to anyway, even if they've lost their jobs and incomes. There is no longer a market for the animals, so they can't be sold. And the other alternatives (such as euthanasia) are even more expensive or non-existent. Kalamazoo County's Animal Services and Enforcement director explains: Winter time is tough, with people being laid off and home foreclosures. ...
  
  

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