Time to stop jump-starting
Written by Tim Higgins | | letters@toledofreepress.comPresident Obama is pushing the passage of the third Stimulus Package in the last three years. This third annual stimulus bill comes on the heels of the $152 billion stimulus of 2008 under President Bush which attempted to jump start the economy by giving taxpayers some cash back in the hopes that they would spend it and thereby create jobs. 2009 saw a $787 billion stimulus package under newly elected President Obama which attempted to jump start the economy by creating infrastructure projects that would create jobs. This latest and more modest effort, one which has currently passed the House, looks for an additional $75 billion (as the stimulus package of 2009 did) for infrastructure projects that would create jobs.
If it passes the Senate and as signed into law by the President, it would bring the total costs of such packages in this country to just over $1 trillion dollars. Now I know that a trillion dollars is not what it used to be these days, but shouldn’t one question the spending of yet another $75 billion when such spending during the prior two years of some $939 billion saw unemployment go from an average of between 5% and 7.5% in 2008 to 10% as we begin 2010.
Many will say that without these stimulus packages, the situation could have been much worse. On the other hand, the point could equally be made that without these stimulus packages, the situation could have been much better as well. The truth of the matter is that since both previous stimulus packages sailed through Congress with nary a hiccup and were quickly implemented, we don’t know what effect their lack would have had on the economy. We do know however that many businesses still proceeded to lay off workers as cost cutting measures after the stimulus, contributing to the rising unemployment rather than reducing it. We also know that the money steered to the banks (and things that became banks) in order to free up money lending, did not in fact do so.
If history has shown us anything, it is that similar funding and projects attempted by FDR during the Great Depression, while they did produce some magnificent monuments to profligate government spending, did nothing to promote long term economic growth or alleviate a similar economic situation. Further, many historians and economists believe that the excessive spending and regulation done by the federal government (and the debt incurred) prolonged the agony of the period far beyond what it would have been if left alone.
So we must ask ourselves, what it is that’s hindering the economic growth and the creation of jobs in this country. Could it be uncertainty over the level of employee regulation and obligation under the health care legislation currently in conference in Congress? Could it be additonal uncertainty about “cap and trade” legislation lined up right behind it, legislation that at this point permits no real understanding of the impact on the costs of doing business in this country? Could it be concern over the rising cost of energy in this country and the yet unknown costs to business that will be mandated by the EPA’s decision to force monitoring and regulation of the production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases?
Could we say that the actual situation be even more insidious and far more dire, with both the last and current Administrations proving themselves all too willing to bail out the speculators and banking interests in this country? Could it be that far too many of those making the decisions about the regulation of the financial industry in Congress and those performing a similar role in the monetary policy in this country are products of the very system that created the current crisis, or rational to believe that those formerly involved either in management or lobbying position in the banking industry are those best able to keep their former friends and employers in check?
What we can say however, is that if we are to continue to use the automotive example that government and the media have presented for the last two plus years to describe this rather poor attempt to manipulate and control economic recovery in this country (regardless of the methods and motives), then perhaps we need to complete the analogy. If you have a car that regularly needs to be jump started in order to keep it going, you would at the least replace the battery to solve the problem. You might even consider replacing the car to eliminate the problem once and for all. What you would not do however, is continue to jump start an improperly functioning vehicle in the vague hope that the problem would simply go away.
Tim Higgins blogs at http://justblowingsmoke.blogspot.com/.
“Many will say that without these stimulus packages, the situation could have been much worse. On the other hand, the point could equally be made that without these stimulus packages, the situation could have been much better as well.”
I love these sweeping statements without attribution or facts.
Demand for goods and services disappeared with the economic crash and you are calling for demand to be reduced even further. How comforting now that the possibility of a depression has passed you’re able to hang tight to your ideological blinders and denounce those efforts that have mitigated the depth of economic damage.
If you’re so focused on parroting Amity Shales book on FDR, why not take some quotes directly from her book and do away with the notion you’re posting new or uniquely synthesized arguments?
Even George Bush wasn’t so ideologically rigid as to insist America’s economy completely self-destruct so that his conservative mental framework would not be violated.
Politicians don’t govern like adults because when they do people like Tim make populist arguments quoting unnamed “many people”.
As always, Tim’s arguments have the substance of smoke behind them.
This comment was posted on January 15th, 2010 at 12:16 am@ Tim all valid questions. I wish the rest of the Media would cover the facts. We truly have too much Government.
This comment was posted on January 15th, 2010 at 12:05 pm@ UT Student, With all the money spent – where’s the recovery? Government is not about being fare, they have a poor record of choosing the winners with a multitude of bailouts and tax give aways. Lately it seems they are about being too big and cumbersome. It’s time to face facts and let the market place and consumer pick and choose what they need. And stay out of the subsidizing of the losers.
“If history has shown us anything…..”
It has shown and continues to show, we have learned little.
Some of us rely on the past to build the future, parroting the words of the old thinkers, when many of the ideas of the old thinkers have been shown to not hold water.
Booms and busts are as natural as the sun rising and sun setting.
Greed is what brought on the latest crash, but heaven help us, if we want to regulate the industry’s responsible.
No, no that would be standing in the way of the marketplace, the very same marketplace that brought the latest crash on a global scale.
This comment was posted on January 15th, 2010 at 12:21 pmPORKULUS I, II , III , and NOW IV, is ( are )nothing more than slush funds set up by Demonrats , to award their militant unionist’s mismanagement of their health care plans, pensions, etc., cities ruined by economic WASTE, Wall Street Ivy League cronies,and some extra cash to spread to the criminal organization known as ACORN !
PROOF ? Only 25 % of this graft has been doled out so far!
EMERGENCY ! EMERGENCY !! EMERGENCY !!! We need to do something about this phony government manufactored CRISIS !!!
Hurry, a crisis cannot be wasted so, let’s go for the POWER GRAB from the citizens…more lies from the party of LIES, more LIES, and even more LIES !
The Bank of Hope and Change, is in default…BIG TIME !
This comment was posted on January 15th, 2010 at 3:14 pmAlso, F.D.R., exacerbated the “Depression”, in some truly WICKED ways. To secure the rather large “farm vote”, at the time FDR, burned thousands of bales of cotton, he destroyed hundreds of thousands of hogs and cattle. Why , you may ask ? To increase ag-prices to the farmers due to the ” Government manufactured shortages ” , this wanton waste created !
Needless to say, it increased prices, secured the farm vote, and , AND, caused widespread hunger and starvation !
The vile designs Demonrats, have for the populace is and ,always will be one of economic manipulation benefitting only THEM, never, EVER the citizens ! A most sinister and despicable way to govern !! Even Stalin, Mao, and all of history’s despots would admire this horrible behavior. Nice crowd you weirdo’s run with..
This comment was posted on January 15th, 2010 at 3:41 pmNon-Partisan master mind, for all so many years, admits he was wrong, and we pay for the wrongs, now.
“But on Thursday, almost three years after stepping down as chairman of the Federal Reserve, a humbled Mr. Greenspan admitted that he had put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and had failed to anticipate the self-destructive power of wanton mortgage lending.
“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?_r=1
Let the free markets do as they please. Even if that means taking down the global economy, all for a profit.
Viva Ann Rynd.
Greenspan read some great books, history repeated and boom, here we are.
This comment was posted on January 16th, 2010 at 11:28 amHa! UT student takes Tim to school. Spot on…
This comment was posted on January 16th, 2010 at 12:12 pmTim, I had to refer back to a few UP-Babeee, econ. textbooks to refresh the HORRORS that was called FDR’s Agriculteral Adjustment Act ( AAA ).The protoptype of typical government free market tinkering gone terribly wrong…BIG TIME !
To bribe the rather farm vote in the 1930’s, FDR ,and Ag. Sec. Wallace, schemed to raise Ag. prices to ensure that vote.
So, he destroyed 6 MILLION pigs,
” ” 4 MILLION dairy cows,
” ” 4 MILLION beef cattle,
” ” 8 MILLION bales of cotton ,
” ” plowed under one third of existing growing cotton !! Tobacco, corn, oats, wheat, and other crops were also DESTROYED ! All to raise Ag. prices, which this government induced SHORTAGE did do, at the same time STARVING and making HUNGRY millions of Americans, who at the time ,had to import grain from S. America to feed a growing populace!!
This sinister and thoroughly wicked way of ” governing”, was so successful in getting FDR, re-elected…Mao Tse Tung, emulated this wholesale demonic treatment of his citizens also! Needless to say, Mao, murdered or caused the deaths of 150 to 300 MILLION Chinese, by STARVATION !!!
Real nice crowd ObaMao, Kapturd, and you Demonrats run with and AGREE with !!
This comment was posted on January 18th, 2010 at 11:52 amOooops, I forgot to add, the MASSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT, that FDR’s, AAA caused due to 1) not much need to process all of those destroyed Ag. products, by bakers, butchers and, candlestick makers,etc. 2) not much need transporting of those Ag. products or the products made from them ,so , fewer trucking, shipping,jobs etc. 3) and all the ancillary jobs LOST due to this EMERGENCY ,CRISIS ,GOVERNMENT MANUFACTURED NIGHTMARE.
EXACTLY, the same idiocy that ObaMao, Kapturd, and all the rest of the DEMONRATS, are doing NOW !!!
History, is repeating itself and it ain’t going to be pretty !
This comment was posted on January 18th, 2010 at 12:00 pmLost in the din of quirky irrelevant noise is the simple fact, that since the inception of the act to regulate the farm industry, not one Congress has introduced legislation to undo the house of cards that still to this day pays farmers subsidies.
And many still think that a President can wield broad powers and influence Congress to do his or her bidding.
And equally so, this President, what with the lobbyists, special interests, etc., all holding sway over the leadership, mean while we sit and spin.
This comment was posted on January 19th, 2010 at 10:34 amDear N.C., Grain farmers ( corn, wheat, rye, oats, etc.) receive NO SUBSIDIES from Uncle Sam, and never have !
Sugar, cotton, walnuts, sunflower,Mohair, producers etc., are the ones who get the graft from the Feds.
Why ? Because ,they cannot compete on the World market as we grain producers do. We pay 300% more for sugar than the rest of the world does. 400% more for cotton than the rest of the world does.
All due to the trough feeders with their millionaire and billionaire Ag-biz hands into Congress’ pocket…and ultimately into OURS , via higher prices !
All thanks to Demonrats, who are the “worst politicians” , money can BRIBE !!
This comment was posted on January 20th, 2010 at 10:44 am“Grain farmers ( corn, wheat, rye, oats, etc.) receive NO SUBSIDIES from Uncle Sam, and never have !”
Really?
“Corn Subsidies by year, Iowa”
http://farm.ewg.org/farm/progdetail.php?fips=19000&progcode=corn
“Wheat Subsidies in United States”
http://farm.ewg.org/farm/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=wheat
This comment was posted on January 21st, 2010 at 1:10 pmPrice subsidies are wholly and completely different than what this psychotic leftist group is moaning about.
In fact, I’m not sure how this group came up with these figures…they aren’t ” price subsidies”, as I was referring to.
Further inspection is warranted…
This comment was posted on January 21st, 2010 at 2:44 pmChecking further, these ’subsidies’, were what I thought they were. Direct payments to NOT grow grain…therefore, creating a shortage ,keeping prices ’stable’.
Price subsidies THEY ARE NOT ! The weirdo who called me the other day stated that she would or could pay me $70 / acre to NOT GROW grain.
A thoroughly STUPID, idea since much more per acre can be made to GROW CROPS !! These payments are designed for those farmers nearing retirement , not wanting to farm anymore, finances, etc., or some other reason …therefore, Uncle Sam, gladly pays them to leave their ground fallow !
Again, that isn’t what I meant as” price subsidies”, which are offered to the ‘crops’, I mentioned before.
This comment was posted on January 21st, 2010 at 2:55 pm“These payments are designed for those farmers nearing retirement , not wanting to farm anymore, finances, etc., or some other reason …therefore, Uncle Sam, gladly pays them to leave their ground fallow !”
” * Farm subsidies are intended to alleviate farmer poverty, but the majority of subsidies go to commercial farms with average incomes of $200,000 and net worths of nearly $2 million.
* Farm subsidies are intended to raise farmer incomes by remedying low crop prices. Instead, they promote overproduction and therefore lower prices further.
* Farm subsidies are intended to help struggling family farmers. Instead, they harm them by excluding them from most subsidies, financing the consolidation of family farms, and raising land values to levels that prevent young people from entering farming.
* Farm subsidies are intended to be consumer-friendly and taxpayer-friendly. Instead, they cost Americans billions each year in higher taxes and higher food costs.”
http://www.heritage.org/research/agriculture/bg2043.cfm
This comment was posted on January 21st, 2010 at 3:34 pmFARM SUBSIDIES : ARE NOT PRICE SUBSIDIES !!
I realize that the difference confounds you, not me.
My neighbor Virgil B. , is too old to farm and takes subsidies to leave his land fallow. Why he doesn’t rent it out to make more money is perplexing…
Again, cereal grain producers receive NO PRICE SUBSIDIES AND NEVER HAVE.
This comment was posted on January 21st, 2010 at 5:14 pm