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Posted on 02/16/2009 12:00:54 PM PST by Michael Eden
Most economists almost unanimously recognize that, even if philosophically you're -- you're wary of government intervening in the economy, when you have the kind of problem we have right now -- what started on Wall Street, goes to Main Street, suddenly businesses can't get credit, they start paring back their investment, they start laying off workers, workers start pulling back in terms of spending -- that, when you have that situation, that government is an important element of introducing some additional demand into the economy.The title is just my way of poking liberals in the eye with the sharpest stick I can find. An eyepoke, as they say, is worth a thousand words.We stand to lose about $1 trillion worth of demand this year and another trillion next year. And what that means is you've got this gaping hole in the economy.
That's why the figure that we initially came up with of approximately $800 billion was put forward. That wasn't just some random number that I plucked out of -- out of a hat. That was Republican and Democratic, conservative and liberal economists that I spoke to who indicated that, given the magnitude of the crisis and the fact that it's happening worldwide, it's important for us to have a bill of sufficient size and scope that we can save or create 4 million jobs.
We were told over and over again, "Bush lied, people died." It didn't matter if Democrats were saying the same things that Bush said:
Bush Lied? Quotes from Democrats About the Threat of Iraq-Truth!
It didn't matter that every major intelligence service in the Western world believe that Saddam Hussein had WMD and was trying to develop more WMD.
But why let the facts get in the way of a good rhyming slogan?
But with Obama, such a slogan actually has some real legs.
On Friday, February 9, in his media blitzkrieg to sell the Porkulus, Obama made some incredibly forceful - but incredibly false - claims:
Most economists almost unanimously recognize? Really, Barry Hussein?
Kind of reminds me of Algore's famous, "The science pertaining to global warming is settled." Right, you propagandist liar.
Obama is lying to us. And this isn't just a tiny little white lie; IT'S A GREAT BIG FAT GIANT $2.3 TRILLION LIE. And it may be an even bigger lie than that.
The Cato Institute placed a full page ad in the New York Times signed by a ton of economists that read:
With all due respect Mr. President, that is not trueAnd there were a whopping load of economists who signed on to that statement - at least a couple hundred, just at a glance.Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policymakers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.
All these economists signed a public letter saying, "With all due respect, Mr. President, you are a bald-faced liar."
Obama also said:
We saw this happen in Japan in the 1990s, where they did not act boldly and swiftly enough and, as a consequence, they suffered what was called the lost decade, where essentially, for the entire '90s, they did not see any significant economic growth.But that is simply false.So what I'm trying to underscore is what the people in Elkhart already understand, that this is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill recession. We are going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Japan’s Big-Works Stimulus Is Lesson By MARTIN FACKLERAnd another article:HAMADA, Japan — The Hamada Marine Bridge soars majestically over this small fishing harbor, so much larger than the squid boats anchored below that it seems out of place.
And it is not just the bridge. Two decades of generous public works spending have showered this city of 61,000 mostly graying residents with a highway, a two-lane bypass, a university, a prison, a children’s art museum, the Sun Village Hamada sports center, a bright red welcome center, a ski resort and an aquarium featuring three ring-blowing Beluga whales.
Nor is this remote port in western Japan unusual. Japan’s rural areas have been paved over and filled in with roads, dams and other big infrastructure projects, the legacy of trillions of dollars spent to lift the economy from a severe downturn caused by the bursting of a real estate bubble in the late 1980s. During those nearly two decades, Japan accumulated the largest public debt in the developed world — totaling 180 percent of its $5.5 trillion economy — while failing to generate a convincing recovery.
Barack Obama-sanJapan's "lost decade" was characterized by massive government spending that produced absolutely nothing. Adjusted GDP, for the United States to spend as much as Japan did, it would have to spend at least $19 TRILLION. So Japan went plenty far enough. They took the "government spending equals stimulus" logic all the way to the wall. And crashed and burned.As January 20 nears, Barack Obama's ambitions for spending on the likes of roads, bridges and jobless benefits keep growing. The latest leak puts the "stimulus" at $1 trillion over a couple of years, and the political class is embracing it as a miracle cure.
Not to spoil the party, but this is not a new idea. Keynesian "pump-priming" in a recession has often been tried, and as an economic stimulus it is overrated. The money that the government spends has to come from somewhere, which means from the private economy in higher taxes or borrowing. The public works are usually less productive than the foregone private investment.
In the Age of Obama, we seem fated to re-explain these eternal lessons.
Now Democrats are about to embark on the biggest, most unprecedented government spending binge in human history.
The problem with this kind of massive spending by government - apart from the fact that it doesn't work and will entail the forfeiture of our liberty - is that it will result in a devalued currency and shocking inflation down the road. And hate to tell you, but there is a genuine nightmare scenario that is becoming more and more real as government blunders farther and farther into a black hole of waste and incompetence.
The Porkulus package is entirely owned by the Democrats. If it fails - and it will fail - we will have lost precious time and resources that we could have invested in a meaningful solution to our economic crisis.
Obama has repeatedly issued alarmist "fear mongering" threats to push his package onto a fearful country. He has used bitter partisan speeches to try to malign and ridicule Republicans who were entirely shut out of all input into the bill. He has blatantly lied, as I've shown in this article. And he is about to sign into a law a bill that was passed without actually having been read by a single Representative or Senator who voted for it.
Obama's stimulus bill is just pork in new disguise. And the reality is that we have over a trillion dollars worth of pork bundled into hundreds of wasteful packages of a few billion here, and several hundred million over there - and all of it collectively championed by Obama as "essential" to our very survival.
And the Democrats aren't telling the truth about any of it - even how much it really cost.
George Will, appearing on ABC's "This Week" on February 15, said:
Do the arithmetic here. It's said to be $787 billion, which if that were the only cost of this would be 9% of GDP. But then if you add in two other things - the cost of the borrowing to finance this - over a reasonable time horizon - and you add the cost of those programs which are called "temporary" but which we KNOW will become permanent - it's about $2.3 trillion. Therefore Tom Cole, the Congressman from Oklahoma, had it about right when he said, "Never before have so few spent so much so quickly for such little effect."And if Heritage is correct, even that shockingly high figure is actually far lower than a reality which should be as terrifying as it is mind boggling:
And these dollar figures representing the real cost of this "porkulus" - as shockingly high as they are - don't even begin to address the REAL causes for our financial crisis. The most expensive spending package in the history of the world didn't address either the housing crisis or the banking crisis. That will take MORE trillions to resolve.
The next bank bailout which will immediately follow the hundreds of billions (actually trillions) we've just voted for could itself cost as much as $2 trillion, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.
Hold Obama accountable.
If this economy doesn't start picking up after Obama signs Porkulus, start spreading the word: Obama lied, the economy died.
Dream on. The economy died as we became a consuming nation instead of a producing one. Your job, factory and dollar exporting Fleece-trade deals at work.
Let me borrow $3 trillion dollars from you (I’ll pay it back, promise) and we’ll see how your economic prosperity holds up.
Our debt is crippling. We are currently spending about $500 billion every year on servicing our debt, which is the 3rd or 4th largest expenditure in our budget. That number is expected to go up to over $900 billion now as a result of this porkulus fiasco.
This is going to devalue our currency and ultimately result in skyrocketing inflation within a few years.
I heard on TV that the government is already contemplating a “federal sales tax” in order to help pay these massive debts for all the socialist pork we’ve taken on. The new tax is being contemplated for just after the midterm elections.
So you dream on.
You’re right; we HAVE largely lost our manufacturing base, and it leaves our economy FAR more vulnerable. We lost it to liberals’ union agenda, to their taxation agenda, to their litigation agenda, to their regulatory agenda, and to their environmental agenda. But when the house of cards called the US economy comes crashing down, it will be massive skyrocketing debt - followed by lenders refusing to lend us any more money (or lending at such high interest rates it’s unreal) - that will send the “house” crashing down.
Are cans of condensed soup okay? Dang, maybel all I’ll be able to come up with are a few boxes of that freeze dried soup.
I DO like that shirt, though. I think you’ve got something there.
I just realized that when I copied and pasted this from my blog, that somehow the formatting got screwed up.
It is correct at http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/obama-lied-the-economy-died/
The quote (which comes from Obama) at the top of the article SHOULD have followed the paragraph that reads:
“On Friday, February 9, in his media blitzkrieg to sell the Porkulus, Obama made some incredibly forceful - but incredibly false - claims:”
I apologize for messing up like that.
Sorry. Anyone who thinks our government debt started with Porkulus has missed the last eight years and anyone who thinks we can ‘grow our way out’ doesn’t realize we have little to grow.
Obama Lied, The Economy Died...fire up the printing press that would make a great bumper sticker...and also a great freeping chant.
ex-snook
I looked up “fallacy of the false dilemma” and saw your name.
Why on earth would you say something so obviously “STRAW MAN-ish” as “anyone who thinks government debt started with porkulus”? Do ya really think ANYONE believes that?
You remind me of the Democrat talking point: “you either want the Democrats’ massive porkulus bill or you want to do nothing.” Because in their idiotic little rodent liberal brains, there can be no other possible options except their bill.
The Congressional Budget Office has calculated that if the top spending programs are continued in this bill, the actual cost will be $3.27 TRILLION.
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/02/12/true-cost-of-stimulus-327-trillion/
And you don’t think that could amount to the grand piano that breaks the camel’s back?
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