Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Impertinent Observations

After asking some questions on the Winterville yahoo group about the “wandering guineas” that started showing up in our yard a while back, I got a call from Erin France of the Banner-Herald.  I, in turn, referred her to my sweet wife, with the result being this story that appeared in Monday’s edition.

Speaking of my sweet life, who works at Coile Middle School (located between Winterville and Hull), she called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that her desk had shook and to see if I had noticed any untoward vibrations.  Within a few minutes, word came out that there had been an earthquake up in the Old Dominion.

On the national scene, the various mouthpieces for the Obama Administration are pushing the idea that government transfer payments (food stamps, unemployment payments, etc.) in reality constitute economic stimulus and job creation.  Of course, any such contention is utter crap – but it is precisely the kind of newspeak crap that we have come to expect.

Speaking of Obama & Co., they are laying the groundwork for “Stimulus Mark II” in the form of a “bank” for “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects.  Haven’t we seen this one before?  Wasn’t that one of the main selling point for the original version?  It didn’t work then, just as many of us predicted at that time.  There is absolutely no reason to think that it will work this time, either.

And now we find out that the Fed bailed out banks, both American and foreign, to the tune of another $1.2 trillion that it didn’t see fit to tell anyone about.

Finally, I am angry with the GOP leadership (or establishment or whatever term one may choose to use).  I realize that the deal they got with regard to raising the federal debt limit was probably the best they were going to get, given that Democrats control the Senate and the White House.  On the other hand, signing off on baseline budget increases of $7-9 trillion and calling it a $2-4 trillion cut in spending is an absolute crock.  My anger stems from the fact that Republicans had the opportunity to make some structural changes just a few short years ago when they ran everything up in Washington – and they did not do so.  As a result, they are now facing a well deserved challenge from fiscally conservative, small government Republicans, not to mention the Tea Party, on their right.  I hope that the GOP powers that be have learned their lesson – but we shall see.

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2 comments:

olcrazypete said...

The original stimulus was too small to start with. It was a number pulled out of a hat, not one that dealt with the facts. It ran out this year, coinciding with a flattening of growth again. In the land of real economics, when there is a downturn in the economy, the best response for government is to attempt to try to pick up some of the slack and spend, not to make matters worse by also cutting jobs. Cutting jobs and trying to take on the debt is an idiotic reaction, deal with the debt during a time of growth i.e.where we were when Clinton handed off a surplus in the yearly budget and unemployment was low, not at the low point of a recession.

james said...

Needless to say, I could not disagree more.