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Sunday, March 08, 2009
Paul Jacob :: Townhall.com Columnist
Stop stimulating me
by Paul Jacob
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We need a new, bigger stimulus plan. Fast. Congress ought not think too hard about it. Or read it.

Or put it up online, for goodness sake. Just cobble together another 1,000 — or even 2,000 — pages, with lots of spending and thus lots of jobs created.

And if this stimulus doesn’t work?

“We have a responsibility to act,” President Obama argued in the face of news the unemployment rate jumped a half percentage point in February to 8.1 nationally.

“It’s premature to say we need another stimulus,” offers Mark Zandi at Moody’s Economic.com, an advisor to Democrats, “but the economy is performing much worse than when [the $787 billion stimulus legislation] was signed, and the odds are increasing that we’ll need a bigger policy response.”

Zandi adds that policy has thus far been a step behind the recession. “It’s important to get a step ahead.”

Indeed.

Most of all, if this new, bigger stimulus doesn’t work, we must stay the course, ready to enact an even newer, even bigger one.

How big?

Big enough. “I don’t know what the number is going to be, but it’s going to be a big number,” said Austan Goolsbee, one of Obama's favored economic advisers. The first stimulus was big, of course. Huge — as the next stimulus shall be, because as Goolsbee put it, “The point is to, kind of, get people back on track and startle the thing into submission.”

Quiet, please. Our leaders are urgently working to “fix” our economy. Who knows how many trillions they will need to borrow or print or confiscate from you, and then spend as only they know how, to provide the precise proddings of stimuli to “get the money where it’s needed.”

Are you out shopping yet?

The one thing we know for certain is that we cannot just do nothing. Some might call this an economic “correction.” Well, we cannot allow ourselves to be corrected. If we don’t act forcibly to “shock” the economy, wrote the president before the his first stimulus, “Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.”

One trick seems to be to borrow and spend fast enough to create jobs more quickly than the private sector can lose them. Our advantage, here, is that if any nation’s solons can lead such an international spending crusade, American politicians can. We’re No. 1 for that.

In fact, this economic trouble isn’t really all that big a deal. Our politicians are plenty talented enough to take on some other big difficulties, too.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” informed Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff. And what he means, of course, is that in a crisis there “is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Like fixing health care. About time that was made to work better, don’t you think? When Congress and the President are through, we’ll be required to have quality, affordable medical care. Every single one of us. Like it or not.

Who better than the federal government to make something run efficiently with the very highest of quality?

But, best of all? Our new commitment to discover clean, renewable, green energy to power everything we want at low cost while providing millions and millions of jobs. Why didn’t anyone think of this before? A whole new way of life, thanks to President Barack Obama and our Congress making it a priority. Getting ’er done.

Given enough money to throw at it, I know the great discovery will come. If not, we’ll get more money.

Later, when Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid decide we’ve “turned the corner” on our economic woes, the federal government is going to really get fiscally disciplined, cutting spending, etc.

Just wait and see. It’s all very stimulating. The underlying principle is easy to grasp: If the nine-volt battery doesn’t stimulate, bring out the cattle prod. If that doesn’t work, there’s always the electric chair. 

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About The Author
Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge. His daily Common Sense commentary appears on the Web, via e-mail, and on radio stations across America.
 
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I hear your wariness
You know, I finally get where conservatives are coming from. After seeing Bush and company throw money at things faster than a drunken marine on shore leave, it is no wonder you have a distrust of government. We need to throw the rascals out and start fresh. Wait! We did.

Stimulating Socialists
Obama vows to change inscription on Statue of Liberty..... See it at, http://stopthepresses2.blogspot.com/search/label/Statue%20 of%20Liberty

BHL
No, you idiots re-elected the same Congress and put even more Democrats in office. One thing a
Democrat is never shy about and that is spending your money. Now, you see why we were upset with Bush and company spending the first 6 years and the disaster the Democrats created in the last two. Time to throw out all of the Democrats in Congress in 2010.

Egad...
No one can possibly believe Democrats were going to be spending less than the Republicans did? Do people not realize dems have been running Congress since 2006? Are people that ignorant?
Another two year majority term in 08 plus a Dem President and look at the numbers swell. Now all of a sudden spending is great! More spending is even better! Whoopee!

And what is the proposed solution? Re-elect republicans because they don't spend quite as much.

Good Grief! Does no one see the ridiculousness of this position?

Every one needs to get one of those nifty "Reset/Overcharge" buttons Hillary gave to Medvedev...

How ironic and fitting the misspelling of the Russian word turns out to be...

You can't make this stuff up.

Dems and Reps are the problem. Government is the problem.

Wake up America!

The Democrat plan
involves emptying our magazine on this recession, leaving us helpless when the next one comes around. When interest rates are at rock bottom, taxes are high, and there is no more credit for deficit spending, what will they do?

Bleeding Heart Liberal, JOIN ME
Based on your commentary, I am CERTAIN you'll be the first leftist to join me in advocating the NEW Patriot Act.


Given that paying taxes is patriotic (the VPOTUS says so) and liberals are more patriotic than conservatives (you tell us so on virtually every TH thread), the New Patriot Act (as amended today) reads as follows:

1) All leftists (minimally identified as members of the Democrat Party, Greenpeace, NOW, NARAL, NAMBLA, and liberal posters to TH) will immediately have 100% of their income, possessions, assets, or property of any sort taxed at 99%.

2) Any attempt to resist, evade, shelter, off-shore, "mistake" or otherwise do anythng other than comply with this tax rate immediately and in full shall be a capital offense.

Given your own contention that "real spending" (by the government) "prevents depression", and given how much real spending this would lead to, I KNOW you'll join me.

Won't you?

Neutered by Ann
Here's an idea, Anne: instead of borrowing trillions upon trillions of dollars and spending them on bullcrap, why not cancel federal taxes for 2009? Then no one would have to lose their jobs, and people who are underwater on their mortgages can foreclose and and get housing they can actually afford, and banks can raise their lending standards so they don't go bankrupt again. Simple.

NO BAILOUTS
STOP ALL WELFARE PROJECTS.

Refer to Star
I'm betting Star Parker has the clearest answer: for such a time as this (ES 4.14) urbancure.com

Another choice?
Remember that the Republican Party started out as a third party. (I voted for Bob Barr.) The Libertarian candidate often makes the most sense, but most people don't want to vote for him. I guess people don't think he'll give them things paid for with other people's money. (That's the whole idea.) Some people really think the government has its own money. Geez!

People who don't even pay attention do get out and vote. So we get what we get.

The idea of term limits is looking better and better.

R

The Little Tempest In A Teapot

Is a'growing...

Up to 15,000 people showed up in sleepy Fullerton, CA to hold a Tea Party protesting Obama, the Democrats and Ahnuld.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/08/fullerton-tea-party-g ets-15000-protestors/

Now MORE then ever!
I have a plan, the fairest one there is;
NOTHING FOR NOBODY!

Spending
Just how much can we spend, before our lenders decide to call in our loans? Perhaps we can give them Alaska or California in exchange for some of the debt? How about Florida? At the rate we are going in debt, we may have to give up everything west of the Mississippi.
Roosevelt tried spending us out of the Great Depression. Only WWII saved him. People loved him, maybe because he did something & he did nice radio addresses. Like Obama, he was a good talker. But the truth is, if people then had understood his financial policies were hurting more than helping, they would have dumped him in a minute.
Our current corporate tax rate is 35%. Every other "free" nation in the world has a lower rate. Wanna bet many companies head off shore soon? Lets face it, w/ no income because only government workers are employed, few Americans will be buying anyway.
Yet the mortgage issue is still not resolved. There are no corrections to the regulations that caused this. Yep, regulations caused this. The same regulations even McCain wanted to revise & make more stringent. Many tried to do so since 2000, but were rebuffed by Barney Frank & Christ Dodd types, with aid of Arlen Specter, Snowe & collins types who voted with them & pushed the "you are a racist" meme on the public.

Obama, the liberals pride and joy
All this talk is futile. This country is doomed and the bleeding heart liberals won't believe it even after they realize Obama has declared himself dictator for life. For, after all, a benevolent dictator who directs us from cradle to grave is better than what the conservatives used to call freedom. Why think when the charlatans inside the beltway promise utopia at the expense of the wealthy?

Stand on your own two feet? Come on, get real. Why work or demonstrate responsibility when your government promises to tame those greedy fat cats and make them take care of you?

America, you are a disgrace to the Founding Fathers and you have doomed yourself and a handful of the rest of us in the bargain.

Howard
PREACH IT!

Mark Zandi from Moody's?
Would this guy be from the same Moody's Investors Service that gave AAA financially safe ratings to mortgage backed instruments that turned as toxic as pig sheit on a hot August day when real estate prices fell through the floor? Anyone with an ounce of sense knows RE prices go up and down but evidently not these fools!!!

These economists had no clue what they were doing when it came to foreseeing the mortgage crisis and now we are suppose to think these a@@holes have any clue about getting us through the hell they invented?

Why isn't former head of Fannie Mae in prison. $90 million in a bonus for essentially giving money away. Geez if someone tells you that the bet is heads you win tails the government loses, how many basically honest people would not give it a whirl?

Isn't that what happened when RE prices were rising? Buy this house now and cash out when the price goes higher!!!! Freddie Mac isn't worrying about your ability to repay why should you? Somehow the bigger fool premise never pans out. "I am a fool to pay this much but there is a bigger fool who will pay more."

Dems. Cong. have run the nation 60
yrs. out of the last 80. Freddie, Fannie, CRAs, unfunded Soc. Sec., vast deficits (Reps. gave Clinton a surplus; there have only been two other Rep. Senates since the 20s--one under Eisenhower and one under Reagan), all the rest have been Dem., even if the pres. has been Rep.

The Big O's deficit for ONE YEAR is bigger than all of Bush's and most all else put together.

But the Dems. DON'T WANT EC. SUCCESS. THEY WANT THE STOCK MARKET TO CRASH. THAT DESTROYS THE MIDDLE CLASS. THEY WANT THE *CRISIS* TO BE UNENDING, SO THAT THEY CAN CONSTANTLY BEGGAR THE NATION TO LOWER OUR STANDARD OF LIVING AND TURN US INTO A N. AM. SWEDEN.

Sweden didn't even choose sides in WW II.

This is not just about a recession. This is a plan for permanent depression for years. The *stimulus* actually merely helps education (public), gov't (public), and medical industries (1/2 public), none of which are great at generating products and making weatlth.
Gov't makes no wealth.

If you are getting employment on the roads in the Carolinas, that's fine, but entirely incidental and won't last. Once that road is done, so are the jobs. Ciao baby. On the dole, again.

Telepromter
This walking Telepromter has no idea what he is doing. He is an empty suit. A somewhat classy punk. A phoney. His ego is larger than his ears. Bush set the stage for this socialist, no commie, to bring America and it's stupid people who voted for him as well as the rest of us to it's knees. At the age of 67 I never thought I would ever live to see the demise of this once wonderful and proud coountry sink to this. I really believe that there is no turning back now.

Joel
Right on ! If a woman wants to control her body she can keep her legs crossed.

spelling
I just realized that I typed country wrong. Sorry.

FairTax.org is the only real stimulus!
Our beloved government is a lousy economics student. Stop taxing businesses and people at all on their potential earnings. Tax only on consumption, sales taxes, if they must. All earnings are tax free. Tax only when earnings are spent in the form of consumer sales taxes. Questions? Read FairTax.org now.

Here's what happens neutered
NC's road projects/jobs were already in the works. Those jobs were not created by the stimulus. I lived there, I am informed. The NC Governor is covering his butt for other stimulus money that goes to special interests and makes it sound good.

Just like those 25 jobs for cops in OH.
What will happen when the stimulus money is gone? The state will have to pay for it or those jobs will be cut.

What a savior the COW is? Sheesh! That guy!!!

If taxes for 2009 were alleviated it wouldn't help those who don't pay taxes, especially the ones who have their hands out and heads up their assses. It would, however, give those who make the money the power and incentive to create jobs for those who have been without one. Is that simple enough? I think so.

Fair Tax Scheme = Just a bunch of Pelosi


Mainly for KurtPo the FairTax Schemer


NEW WORD FOR YOUR VOCABULARY

Years ago when I sometimes used unsavory language, I often used the
expression "Bull Sh**." As I grew up a bit and discovered it was not
necessary to use such crude language, that expression became "BS" or, in the
military, "Bravo Sierra"

Q. What did I really mean when I used those expressions?

A. I meant that something was ridiculous, idiotic, a half-truth, or just
stupid. It covered any number of negative formats. The dictionary defines it
as: nonsense; especially foolish insolent talk.

I have decided that I will no longer use either of those expressions in the
future. When I have the need to express those feelings, I will use the word
"Pelosi".

Let me use it in a sentence. "That's just a bunch of Pelosi." I encourage
you to do the same. It is such a good word. It really packs a lot of punch.
We are no longer being vulgar but it clearly expresses our feelings. If
enough of us use it, it's possible we can get the word in the dictionary.
That would be an excellent legacy for the Speaker of the House.

The FairTax Scheme is just a bunch of Pelosi


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

All of us have Photographic memories . . . . Only the liberal lemmings have no film to record it



Not shopping yet
No, I'm not out shopping. I lost my job.

"Don't Deffersit Me No More Deffersits"
Remember during the GHW Bush Admin of 1988-1992, when the Demmie Congress who had spent out the wazoo during the Reagan yrs as their payoff for going along w/ lower taxes & getting in the USSR's face instead of doing more Neville Chamberlain routines? Back then the rhetoric was "Deficit! The deficit's gonna eat us alive, & undertaxation caused it!" The elder Bush caved & reneged on his "No more taxes" promise, thus instead of a 2nd term he was supplanted by Waco Willie with his phantom "middle class tax cut" promise (sound familiar?).

We're soon going to hear about "deficits" and the "need" for higher taxes to "pay for them." The Dems blew a record pile of money on their pet projects that won't stimulate a darn thing except (they hope) re-election. We can also expect inflation thanks to this BS, if & when the economy actually starts to stagger forward again. All that will suppress any recovery or renewed prosperity. The Carter Stagflation will return, once again belying Keynes.

Just as in 1989-1992, if CongressDems even THINK there's more revenue coming, they'll just spend more. Raising taxes will be like pouring gasoline on the fire.

So much for "change:" back we go to the Carter yrs and "the worst economy in 50 yrs (1992, ha ha)." Maybe even the big prize: the 1930's!

Don't even get me started on government monopoly banking, gvmt monopoly rationed healthcare, or the bogus "climate change" dogma for hits to the economy. Trying to revive an economy w/ socialism is like trying to revive a cardiac arrest patient by shooting him thru the heart.

We Already DID 'Stimulus!'
BTW: the economy's BEEN stimulated! The housing bubble, caused by reckless gvmt policy originally designed to make Bill Clinton look good, stimulated the living heck out of the economy. That's one reason 'stimulation' fails & is doomed to fail now: we've milked it dry already!

Bhl
No the conservatives threw out the repubs,but the liberals didn't throw out any of their spenders.

Move along, no fear-mongering here
I'm just glad the Dems and The O aren't into fear-mongering. When The O says we must give billions to ACORN & Co., bend over and grab the ankles for union bosses, and give free homes to the poor, or else we might "sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse,” he's merely speaking logically, saying things that no other American president has said before (because they couldn't recognize "truth," of course), he's not fear-mongering.

I have friends who voted for "change," and it certainly looks like we're getting it!! After all, that "freedom" thing has never worked that well. It's "socialism" and "communism" that really build a successful nation (or at least successful politicians, which is all that matters to...politicians). The ugly fact that America is #1 in the world has happened only because we tromp on the "rights" of The Poor, those being the people who are unwilling to work for the evil "money," and who are therefore "noble"--which is why the evil, successful capitalists must be forced to support them.

Is it "1984" or "Alice in Wonderland"? Before the election, I feared what Obama would do. But who knew he'd have such a "crisis" to correct??? And who would have suspected that he and his Clinton appointees would be able to take advantage of the "crisis" and move so quickly on ALL of the economy-killing cures???

Looks like it's going to be a lonnnnng 4 years. Maybe not quite so long if we can realign the Congress in 2010, kind of like what happened in 1994. Unfortunately, if we got the Republican Congress of 1994, they might make The O look like a success, which could lead to a lonnng EIGHT years.



Polly post #1
What an idiot! obama-nation has done nothing but, FEAR monger, crisis this, crisis that, 27 times in one four minute speech.

What do you call that warm and fuzzy talk!

Banks should get bigger
We keep saving banks by making them bigger. But they are to big to fail and therefore the tax payer must be on the hook.

Remember the S&L Crisis and the number of democrats that came into office during that time? They made the laws to protect us from having this happen again.

Why do we limit the amount that can be insured in savings accounts for individuals but allow the banks to get so big as have to be bailed out?

Polly sorry
The first part of your post confused me as I feel the same way, we lost I won now bend over and take your meds....

obama-nation, pelsoi and reed took out an amendment of the stimulus bill that passed with out anyone reading it let alone us. The amendment: that would have employers to e-verify a new employee citizens status. GONE!!!!!! There goes 300,000 jobs to illegal aliens rather then Americans.

What part of this is right. illegal aliens mail home millions of dollars home to Mexico and right now they ARE taking jobs away from American citizens that would be more then willing to take any job to save there home, car and pay bills.

obama-nation you are not the savior of this country or the world like you would like to see yourself.

American Jobs for Americans............


4Th. of July revolution in D.C. this year! Tax day Tea Party everywhere!

Jesus is my Lord, obama-nation quit cramming down your crap down our throats! Fix the economy first like you said in the debates. Live up to your promises obama-nation

Joel
You've misrepresented the Libertarian party. They don't support abortion. Their stance on abortion is that it is simply not an issue that belongs in the Federal government and leaves it up to the state. Libertarians tend to attract both pro and anti-abortion individuals and abortion (along with other morality issues) are not part of the party platform. They're just about shrinking down the Federal level to the Constitutional allowable. The power to decide on whether abortion is legal or not is not provided to the Federal government in the Constitution. Find the word "abortion" in the Constitution, I dare you. The same goes with gay marriage, posting 10 commandments in courtrooms and a whole host of other religious right issues. They simply are not something that is to be discussed and no laws, for or against, are to be written on these subjects by those in the US Congress. Full stop.

I am against abortion myself, but it isn't an issue that I'm willing to hand over to my Congressman to decide. If you give power to Congress to make it illegal, they have enough power to simply legalize it again. I don't want to give Congress that power and that's why Libertarians refuse to make it illegal.

The Problem with Bleeding Hearts
Is that you'll end up bleeding out. Stop the blood flow before the Red Cross runs out of donated blood (read taxpayer money).

RUSH IS RIGHT
All politicians are lyers and thiefs, and most are retarded, what kind of IDIOT thinks that when you are broke, you spend a lot of money you dont have and you will have more money. But no lets raise taxes out of sight and we will stimulate the economy, If we just give people 13.00 more and raise their taxes about double at the same time mabey they will forget that we raised their taxes, and spend us back to prosperity. OBAMA do you think that we wont notice what you are doing if you RANT and RAVE enough about a radio talk show host. WE ARE NOT NEARLY AS STUPID AS YOU THINK WE ARE.

Tax cuts

May 2003, Bush tax cuts passed.

Tax Revenues:

2003 $1.7 trillion
2004 $1.8 trillion
2005 $2.15 trillion
2006 $2.40 trillion
2007 $2.56 trillion

(source - CBO)


Better start printing
We just got (had) a Stimulus that costs more than three times the actual money in circulation in this country.
Then we get a budget that's off-the-chart - and we don't have a penny more than the not-nearly-enough we had then.
Since we're pushing ten times more money out than we have, NOW is the time to really scare that recession into hiding! FULL STEAM AHEAD - since we'll never pay it back in any conceivable lifetime, we may as well kick it up a notch - or three.

Justin
Most truly, the Libertarian approach to abortion is the same as their approach to most things: it is the province of the People, first, then the several States - THEN the FEDS.
Abortion is strictly the province of the People - but Churches, Liberal Activists, and busybodies all want the government to make you behave THEIR way.
That is the one point ALL partisan politics agree on.

Patriotic Military / Law Enforcement!
THIS IS A MUST VISIT WEB-SITE SPECIFICALLY FOR ...

PATRIOTIC MILITARY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ...

YOU MUST VISIT THIS SITE:

http://www.oath-keepers.blogspot.com/

God Bless You for your service to our nation!



Obama's Printing Press
The American people have handed over the printing press to Obama and the feds and they are having a good time printing billions and billions of tax dollars we don't have and can't pay back. They handed over billions of tax dollars to CEOs who should've been fired and replaced and filed for bankruptcy, but continue to give them more. Kiss you retirement good-bye and work your way to the grave - because even your grandkids or great grandkids can't work long enough during their life times to pay back what Obama and those in Congress have agreed to do and continue to do by handing out billions to negligent CEOs who have their hands out on a regular basis now because there's never enough. They eat steak at $100 lb. flown in from Japan and party every Wednesday night with my money and yours. They continue to hand out billions to the wealthy CEOs, but haven't created jobs as unemployment increases? Therefore, I believe that any taxpayer who wants to attend the Wednesday night parties be allowed to share in their celebration since it's at the taxpayer's are picking up the tab.

Stop Stimulating Me
With all due respect to everyone, I don't think Paul's article addressed the issue of abortion.
Maybe we have "aborted" our economy, but hey, it just isn't in there anywhere that I can see.
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