My Representative Went to Congress and All I Got Was This Stupid Debt
So much for the economy bouncing back this year.
We have spent $787 billion on a stimulus plan. President Obama ridiculed opponents whom he said wanted to “do nothing.” Now, Republican officials never actually took that position, but some economists and pundits did. Their argument was simple: stimulus plans of this type are rarely timed well enough to do much good, and the added spending will be hard to reverse while the additional debt will slow growth in the long term.
Indeed, the president’s own economic adviser, Christina Romer, previously disputed the utility of just this sort of Keynesian scheme. It is fair to ask what we got for that money and the debt which accompanies it. Was Romer right in her pre-Obama days?
Let’s look at what we were supposed to accomplish with the stimulus. We were going to “create or save” four million jobs, and then 3.5 million, and — most recently — 2.5 million.
In an interview with the New York Times we heard from the president:
President Obama can’t assure that the economy will bounce back this year, but he says he will “get all the pillars in place for recovery this year.”
But that prediction and the job calculations cooked by the president and his economic advisers have already been proven wrong. A Republican insider on Capitol Hill explains that the “forecast for saving or creating jobs is based on the stimulus ensuring that the unemployment rate not exceed 8% between now and 2014.” But we are already passed the 8% mark.
What would have happened without the stimulus? According to the administration’s calculations, we would then hit 9% unemployment. But that is the very figure that many economists now predict we will hit in a matter of months. Some predict we will hit 10%. Four states have already hit that figure.
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Jennifer Rubin is PJM's Washington, DC, editor. She also blogs at Commentary’s Contentions.
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20 Comments
1. Class Clown:I plan on displaying my debt on the mantle in my living room. Assuming I can still afford a living room. Or that my debt will even fit inside the house.
But at least I will have something to show for it.
Mar 15, 2009 - 2:37 am 2. Delia:“So we return to the fundamental question, which many Americans are asking: What are we getting for all that money? The answer is: a lot of debt.”
~
? Naw. Honey chile, we are on the high riding tsunami to socialism. I wish it were just a ‘debt’ issue. I can deal with debt… My husband and I managed to pay ourselves out of DEEP debt three times since we’ve been together [and have stellar credit because of it].
-But, this new design has nothing to do with saving diddly squat…this is about lining the pockets of the aleady rich whilst throwing a few wayward crumbs to the blind/deaf/dumb.
Zero ain’t no Hero.
Mar 15, 2009 - 2:38 am 3. Pops in Vienna:Well, at least there’s some justice in the fact that the stupid and naive youth of America, who voted Obama into office, will end up paying the bills.
It’s almost biblical because we’ll be paying for the sin of Obama for seven generations.
Mar 15, 2009 - 4:28 am 4. Joe Ferguson:If we had to have a stimulus package — and that is indeed a big “if” — why wasn’t it focused and packaged in a way so we could get something tangible for all that money? It could have been the moon shot for energy independence, for example: “We MUST spend a trillion dollars, but at least we will develop all our energy sources, including the best alternative and conventional forms, so that our children, in exchange for the debt we’re saddling them with, will have abundant, safe — and independent — energy upon which to build and grow the economy.” Perhaps that would have been a program to inspire us, garner support, and give us something to look forward to. As it is, we’re already having to look around and ask “what the f*** did we spend all that money on?” I’m 66, and in my lifetime I have never seen anything more cynical, dangerous, dishonest, and just plain stupid jammed down the throats of US citizens.
Mar 15, 2009 - 5:01 am 5. Gary Ogletree:I expect the Genius in Chief will default on our debt. That’ll shut up his dumb critics. Bull market in guns and ammo.
Mar 15, 2009 - 5:31 am 6. David Thomson:Our elected officials merely had to significantly drop individual and corporate taxes—and severely cut back spending. But where’s the fun in that? It’s so boring. Politicians instead prefer to pushing projects with their name on them. It’s so much more rewarding to be perceived as some sort of Santa Claus. Barack Obama’s dark skin also makes it easier to pull off this scam job. The race factor allows the politicians to subtly hint that one is a racist if they dare disagree with the president’s outrageous spending habits.
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:03 am 7. ajacksonian:Notice that the ‘moon shot’ did not provide us with a space-based industry?
What will a large energy program do? If you think it will turn out any different than the ‘Great Society’ programs, the moon shots, the war on drugs, the war on cancer, the war on poverty, or spending loads of cash to bring health care under control, then I do have a great bridge to sell to you… cheap!
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:39 am 8. savage24:To add salt to the wound, the bank bailout money that went to AIG is being payed out as bonuses to their executives to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.Lets not forget the politicians got their annual raise in pay too. These guys will go down in history as the biggest waste of money congress ever seated.
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:49 am 9. SeniorD:Only in the abysmally intellectually and morally decrepit Democrat Party can we find people that willingly suspend their intelligence, ignore recently past history to believe the Federal Government spending money it doesn’t have on plans that will never see the light of day will save the economy.
Message to Congrestitutes: TAX CUTS SPAWN ECONOMIC RECOVERY (see Reagan Adminisration). GOVERNMENT SPENDING DOES NOT!
Mar 15, 2009 - 10:42 am 10. Moogie:Delia is absolutely right: the “stimulus” bill is not about recovering the economy. It’s about social engineering and a complete restructuring of American capitalism.
Pops might be onto something: seven generations, at the very least. However, I pity those of the next generation who did NOT vote for Obama. They’ll be stuck on this sinking ship with the college educated zombies, kool-aid drinkers, and Islamic extremist sympathizers.
Mar 15, 2009 - 1:18 pm 11. Jeff:the Republicans have only themselves to blame. when they controlled congress they spent like drunken sailors and disappointed their base.
now there is no way to stop the sending freight train.
on the last budget bill, 6 of the top 10 Senators were Republicans requesting earmarks. This has to change
Mar 15, 2009 - 3:35 pm 12. Jvan Mi:Congress and “O” want the money to spend so they can pay their buddies off for the campaign contributions made during the last election, and forthcoming contributions to fund their retirements. “O” will be on the speech circuit just like Bill and make his own 100 million in six years. “O” is in, and has enough congressional backing to rule out impeachment for just about any reason. He doesn’t even have to perform because he gets a pass from the MSM. Time for another tea party (2010) when we throw all these hipocrits onto the unemployment rolls where they can live off their 100% retirement pay.
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:46 pm 13. Steve Burri:President Obama is a great man. If he sees someone hurting he would give him the shirt off my back.
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:48 pm 14. mcleodlt:I foolishly voted for Mark Warner as the Virginia Senator to replace John Warner because he was a productive, fiscally responsible governor. I realized my mistake when responding to my e-mail requesting a “no” vote on the stimulas, he used the statement that “we could not afford to do nothing.” He was wrong. I will remember this when he comes back around for re-election. I will remember this should he ever run for President.
Mar 16, 2009 - 10:10 am 15. Old Soldier:A lot of debt and lot of “drag.”
The government’s drag on the economy is the Net Present Value of expenditure minus transfer payments. In other words, the bigger the government, the more it inhibits the growth of the economy.
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:34 am 16. Avitar:So how do we short sell stupid? Washington has been stuck on stupid for so long and we have such an over supply of stupid that the price has got to crash some time soon.
Where is the market where I can short sell Keith Olberman or Nancy Pelosi? Do I hear a bid for half of the civil service in ten years from now?
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:02 pm 17. LarryOldtimer:Republicans are not all that much better. They want to pump the bubble of housing back up and the like. Some times it is far better to just take the medicine for the disease you brought upon yourself, however bitter the medicine is.
Since this mess was caused primarily by excessive debt, due to government promoted idiotic lending practices and reckless expansion of the money supply allowed by the Fed to support those lending practices, more debt will only make things worse, and things are going to get far, far worse. Worse even than the Great Depression was. At least, then the US did have a cash economy. Now we don’t have anywhere near even that.
When the Fed has to resort to buying Treasury securities, the rest of the world will realize that Obama is only running another confidence scam game.
Credit is no more than the privilege of spending future earnings in the present. When most of future earnings have been spent in the present, when the future arrives, the earned money is not the earner’s to spend, as it has already been obligated. The future has arrived, and it is bleak to behold.
Mar 17, 2009 - 12:40 am 18. billgbg:This spending plan further shows how O is always behind the curve whether it’s job creation or spending. Reality outpaces him before he hatches the plan.
Mar 18, 2009 - 3:33 pm 19. Terry:LarryOldtimer, you hit it. Most of us conservative/libertarians have bashed the democrats for their insanity while the republican party did the same thing. Just because Reagan came from the republican party doesn’t mean that every one of them is a responsible conservative. It reminds me of the Ann Coulter idea that both parties run as conservatives, republicans sometimes disappoint, democrats always do.
Mar 19, 2009 - 9:41 am 20. Jackson Laurence:I couldn’t agree more with #3 – unfortunately, it’s my daughters, and their children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren, who will be paying this bill. And not only the monetary bill, but also the geopolitical bill that will be reflected in lessened US, and rising Chinese, influence.
Mar 19, 2009 - 1:48 pm