I just got this mass email from John McCain I think it sums up my position on the stimuls pacakge pretty well. If anyone thinks that a short term stimulus package with the criteria mentioned by McCain is not in our best interests I would like to hear why.
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Dear Paul,
Yesterday, the Senate began debate on an economic stimulus package that is intended to get our economy back on track and help Americans who are suffering through these difficult times. Unfortunately, the proposal on the table is big on the giveaways for the special interests and corporate high rollers, yet short on help for ordinary working Americans. I cannot and do not support the package on the table from the Democrats and the Obama Administration. Our country does not need just another spending bill, particularly not one that will load future generations with the burden of massive debt. We need a short term stimulus bill that will directly help people, create jobs, and provide a jolt to our economy.
I believe we need to evaluate every bit of spending in this stimulus proposal with one important criteria - does it really stimulate the economy and help create jobs - if the answer is no, it does not belong in a so-called stimulus package. Furthermore, the stimulus must include significant direct relief to American workers in the form of payroll tax cuts and programs to help homeowners keep their homes. Finally, we need an end game to this stimulus so that when our economy recovers, these spending programs do not remain permanent and saddle our children with a skyrocketing national debt.
I appreciate the discussions President Obama is having with my Republican colleagues, but the time for talking has come to an end and we must now begin some serious negotiation. But as of yet, Republicans have not been given the opportunity to be involved. The House of Representatives passed a stimulus bill without a single Republican supporting it. In the Senate, the Democrat leadership is trying to jam the existing proposal through regardless of reservations from a number of members. With so much at stake, the last thing we need is partisanship driving our attempts to turn the economy around.
I have long been a fighter against wasteful spending in Washington and long an advocate for a balanced budget -- that will never change. I realize we face extraordinary challenges with our economy today, but that is not an excuse for more irresponsibly from Washington. I hope you will join me in saying no to this stimulus package as it currently exists by signing this petition.
Sincerely,
John McCain
Chair, Country First PAC
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3 comments:
I would agree with Sparrow that a stimulus package of some kind is not necessarily a bad idea; it just depends on whether it can directly help the economy in the long term as well as the short term, and whether is means more government or less government involvement. I would also like to share Romney's idea of a stimulus package, from a speech he gave on Jan 15th, before the congressional "Economic Stimulus Working Group". It can be found here:
http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/01/15/romneytestimony.pdf
Romney's plan, in a nutshell, is geared towards the traditional republican plan of less government interference, through the lessening of both corporate and personal income taxes. To quote from Romney's speech:
"The best medicine for a sick economy is permanent tax relief. I’d recommend eliminating the tax on savings for middle income Americans—no tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. This accomplishes three things: it puts money into the consumer’s pocket, it helps replenish the pool of investment capital, and it encourages more Americans to become owners of American business. The same principles apply to business tax relief. A rebate check would be a welcome sight to every businessperson. But a rebate check isn’t going to incentivize businesses to expand, to invest for greater productivity, or to hire more people. It’s lower future tax rates that do that. And there sure is room to cut corporate tax rates—we are at the top of the heap, along with Japan, the nation that has suffered through a decade-long downturn".
So the basic idea is that by lessening the corporate and personal tax burden, the economy improves, with resulting government revenues which rise along with the rising incomes of both businesses and people. It also puts more investment back into the economy, instead of into more government wastefulness.
Another try:
The link didn't get copied completely. Here it is on 2 different lines:
http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/01/15
/romneytestimony.pdf
Paul, I disagree with McCain's e-mail, although yes, I would prefer that 1,000 fold to the one that actually passed. I had honestly forgotten just how stupid the democrats can be if not kept on a short leash. The "stimulus bill" that they recently pushed through without any Republican support is nothing short of a blank check to all of their social programs and pet projects that the republicans have been checking them on for years.
At UCSD, I have the opportunity to rub shoulders with good economic minds in the economics PhD program that are familiar with the current academic thinking. According to them, even the very small portion of the bill that was "stimulus" was based on economic theory that was debunked 40 years ago.
The spending just doesn't stop. Obama's new budget puts the government up to a 1.75 trillion deficit. That was just announced, by the way... right after his speech Tuesday to cut spending by a couple trillion. And what else was in his speech? Spending, spending and more spending. He even said that we need to save our auto industries at all cost because, after all, "we invented the automobile" (not true by the way, that was the Germans). What a good reason to dump billions more into a failing and inefficient company.
Does he and Pelosi have any concept of money or debt? I feel like we just gave our credit card to two teenagers and they are running through the mall, so happy with themselves because they get to buy all of these cool toys for their friends and everyone loves them for it. They are so thoughtful and giving! What happens when the bill comes? What happens when inflation skyrockets and the value of the dollar is reduced to nothing? What happens to our economy then? I forgot, then it will be the banker's fault, right?
The conspiracy theorists say that it is all intentional. It is a way to create a crisis so severe that they can take all the power that they ever dreamed of.
So going back to McCain's e-mail, I think this falls under the same category of your post about health care, Sparrow. You presented an ideal situation, where if the government wasn't corrupt, didn't abuse power, and was very efficient, potentially could help a difficult situation. Similar to communism. In an ideal world, where everyone worked as hard as they could for the common good without the need for incentive, it would probably work beautifully. The founders of our country however, aware of the reality of humanity and governments, wrote our constitution to protect us from the government doing this sort of thing. Too bad our constitution is completely ignored now.
Our best solution is to cut taxes, and get government out of the way. Remove obsticals for business growth.
The government just loves to point the finger at the free market now, blaming them for getting us into this lending mess. And yes, there was some irrisbonsibility, but they fail to mention that governmental tampering with interest rates and loan regulation was the catalyst for the mess in the first place.
Somehow, in the minds of these people so eager to condemn the free market, a few bad years of recession negates countless good years of previous growth. It's as if they were just waiting for this to happen, licking their lips.
Let the free market run it's course.
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