[Praxeologue]

Here is some Krugman-like Keynesian philosophizing from the esteemed Mr. Klein. Will the insurance companies really owe the federal government money?

[bigheadfred]

the best part

now while i am walking down the side of the road kicking horse turds

there are TWICE as many to kick

[nhwingut]

This little communist twerp has been wrong about every economic data point over the past 5 years.

[staytrue]

We could do what FDR did to boost employment.

START A WAR.

Millions of young men with no skills sent somewhere to fight. Millions of others building tanks, bullets, etc. only to have to keep building more as the ones they just build get destroyed.

It would be a workers paradise. Nearly zero unemployment.

[kcvl]

Ezra is a fool...

Did he miss cash for clunkers

2009 stimulus aka American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

$831 BILLION— a historic package of tax cuts, safety-net spending, infrastructure projects and green-energy investments

“Shovel-ready” jobs

The Act specified that 37% of the package is to be devoted to tax incentives, 18%, is allocated to state and local fiscal relief (more than 90% of the state aid is going to Medicaid and education). The remaining 45% is allocated to federal spending programs such as transportation, communication, waste water and sewer infrastructure improvements; energy efficiency upgrades in private and federal buildings; extension of federal unemployment benefits; and scientific research programs.

[kcvl]

As just one example, consider the infamous “Cash for Clunkers” program, the $3 billion federal plan that allowed people to trade in an old car in exchange for about $4,000 off the purchase of a new one. The administration argued it would stimulate the U.S. economy and improve the environment. Critics saw it as a way for the government to prop up the car companies it had recently bailed out. But whatever the motivation, the program was a bust. Economists at the think tank Resources for the Future have found in a new study that the program did not stimulate the economy, and that 45 percent of the money went to people who would have bought a new car anyway. In other words, the administration could have cut out the overhead and simply handed out $1.35 billion to random people on the street.

The ineffectiveness of this program is illustrated by rigorous economic analysis. But Americans know in their hearts that they could drop the needle almost anywhere on Obama’s Big Government Spending Album and get the same basic results: lots of spending with little to show for it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/328432/why-stimulus-failed-arthur-c-brooks

[kabar]

We could invest in infrastructure to create construction jobs. We could give tax breaks to employers who hire new workers. We could restore the payroll tax cut to workers so they have more money to spend. We could help state and local governments hire back some of the employees they laid off during the recession.

We are bankrupt--$17 trillion national debt and $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Where is all the money coming from to do what Klein wants?

[skinkinthegrass]

!

[kvanbrunt2]

There are huge (eye popping) taxes from insurance companies to uncle sam

[Cringing Negativism Network]

America needs American jobs.

Jobs.

We need jobs.