in the wrong era. Soundly refuting
liberals online since 2000. NOTE: That is NOT
me pictured at left. :)
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Audacity of Truth
"Diplomacy":
"People are saying what in the world is going on with North Carolina, we look like Mississippi." - NC Gov. Bev Perdue (D) on the passage of Amendment One, 5-11-12
When all else fails, do it again
So, let’s see. In 2009 President Obama asked for and got a pork fiesta $787 billion stimulus package from Congress, saying we needed it to keep unemployment from rising above 8% and to put America back to work.
It failed miserably. And that’s not even mentioning the pork-barrel spending and nonexistent zip codes.
So, when faced with the utter failure of Keynesian stimulus spending to stimulate anything other than the national debt, what’s a Lightworker President to do? Cut taxes? Cut spending? Ease the burden of regulation on small businesses? Allow a free market economy to do what it does best?
Dudes, don’t be silly.
The answer is obviously to spend more:
President Obama, looking for ways to jump-start the sagging economy and create new jobs, called on Congress on Monday to approve a far-reaching plan to rebuild and modernize the nation’s transportation networks — roads, rail and airport runways — over the next six years.
With Democrats facing increasingly bleak re-election prospects, Mr. Obama used a Labor Day visit to a union festival here to lay out the plan, which the White House says could begin creating jobs as early as 2011 if Congress moves quickly. But prospects for a hasty passage seem unlikely, given that lawmakers have only a few weeks before they go home to campaign and Republicans have little interest in giving Democrats any pre-election legislative victories.
“Over the next six years,” Mr. Obama promised “we are going to rebuild 150,000 miles of our roads — that’s enough to circle the world six times; that’s a lot of road. We’re going to lay and maintain 4,000 miles of our railways — enough to stretch coast-to-coast. We’re going to restore 150 miles of runways and advance a next-generation air-traffic control system to reduce travel time and delays for American travelers — I think everybody can agree on that.”
Mr. Obama vowed that the plan, which would include work on high-speed rail lines, would be “fully paid for” and not add to the deficit.
Gee, where have we heard that last one before?
Setting aside my complete lack of faith that this Congress and administration could spend the requested money wisely (based on their performance so far) and ignoring the consequences of adding to our staggering debt (Oh, heck. What’s another $50 billion among friends?), the proposal for a smaller, more tightly focused and controlled stimulus package is about 18 months too late:
While President Barack Obama goes on the road to shore up slipping popular support for the $1 trillion stimulus porkfest that he ordered up from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Walt Minnick, a freshman Democrat from Idaho, is pushing a better idea: The Strategic Targeted American Recovery and Transition Act (START).
Minnick is a member of the Blue Dog caucus of occasionally conservative Democcrats. His START plan is a $170 billion “bare bones” pure stimulus approach that would put $100 billion immediately into the pockets of low- and middle-income Americans, then use the other $70 billion for basic infrastructure projects that create jobs. START requires that all funds not spent by 2010 be returned to the Treasury. START also stops stimulus spending when the nation’s Gross Domestic Product increases in two of three previous quarters, and all START payments are required to be posted on a public website.
While I’m opposed to Keynesian stimulus in general, and I think the record of history bears out its ineffectiveness, I could have supported the Minnick proposal as a reasonable compromise. To hear Obama come out with something similar only after all the damage his first stimulus has done calls for one response:
D’oh! 
LINKS: More at MSNBC, International Liberty, and Hot Air.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)
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Isn’t the definition of insanity trying to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
I guess this is why the poor man feels like he is being treated like a dog. It can’t be because he is a clueless, ineffective, out of touch with reality leader.
You know the old joke:
I just now completed a post on this myself at my blog (shameless plug). Why does he insist on taxing us to give it back as stim money? Why not leave it in our pockets in the first place? And of course he’s going to pay for this by ending tax breaks for big employers. Tax the people with the jobs so that he can spend on his goofy projects meant to create jobs. When the hell are we going to see that vaunted brilliance we keep hearing so much about?
Marshall: You are assuming that this time the money is actually going to be spent for the things promised. Remember that 95% of the new porkulus jobs were supposed to be private sector “shovel-ready” jobs. It’s all just one big black hole.
Speaking of the Kenyan, from MSN:
Isn’t that special, and the MSM idiots wonder why us po-dunks think he is a Muslim. – Lorica
Well, you see Old Goat, the reason it has always failed in the past (except for this last time) is because they’ve never had the right people doing the job.
With this last one, it was because they didn’t have enough money going down the “black hole” that Pasadena described, so now they’ll have both the right people and enough money.
Right.
Only people as arrogant and stupid as liberals can’t see the truth that’s about to broadside them up side their heads. Even the voters are smarter than that, at least for the most part, now.
Woff Woof Woof Durka Durka Jihad Woff Woof Woof
Obama’s transmission is stuck in “S.”
S for SNAFU.
When he says it will jump start jobs, does he mean union jobs? After all, those are the only jobs he is concerned about.
The only thing good thing I heard from this speech is that he does acknowledge that we are ‘talking about him like a dog’ which is another lie because I love my dog.
barry tries hard…he shows up with no coat and tie and with his sleeves rolled up like he is going to get to work for us……what a phony
This is a totally different stimulus plan, but the results will be the same. The last one worked out to several hundred thousand per job created and failed. With 2 months to go and pathetic poll numbers, this one is several hundred thousand for every union vote still needed.
But… look on the bright side. At least Obama is finally fulfilling a campaign promise. He is being very transparent.
@ Old Goat: There’s a similar quote stating that when someone keeps repeating the same stupid mistakes it then becomes a philosphy..
Part of the news today is that now Duh-1 is complaining that some “in Washington” are talking about him like a dog.
If he didn’t have such a thick head and thin skin, such talk wouldn’t happen.
With all of his sun-like intellectual brilliance, you think he’d take Einstein’s insanity quote to heart and stop being so arrogant as to think the only reason his type of socialist policies have failed in the past 100% of the time is because HE wasn’t in charge.
I’d call him and his gang maroons again, but they’re more like beagles – always sniffing around for trouble and their policies stink like a beagle always stinks.
Zippy, I guess that’s why leftists want control of the schools. Its so much easier to change history when you control what is taught about it.
Tell a lie often enough…
Jeez.
What I just don’t understand is all these politicians talk about the waste going on in government programs, but instead of going after that waste, instead of fixing the problem, the solution seems to be throwing more money to waste at it.
I’m no genius, but it seems to me if something is broken, you look to fix it. Then if you want to upgrade or improve it you can.
You wouldn’t take a car that’s broken and add on things to give it more horsepower, only to have it sit rotting in your front yard.
Just seems like there is no common sense at all.
Speaking of roads, our local talk radio chatter has been that the road projects have been superficial and cosmetic. They haven’t been excavating like they normally do, just skimming on a top coat. The bet is that the roads won’t last long.