Saturday, February 07, 2009
You Have Another Think Coming
This [stimulus bill-the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009] is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s. I don't know what to say. I mean it's wasting a tremendous amount of money. It has some simplistic theory that I don't think will work, so I don't think the expenditure stuff is going to have the intended effect. I don't think it will expand the economy. And the tax cutting isn't really geared toward incentives. It's not really geared to lowering tax rates; it's more along the lines of throwing money at people. On both sides I think it's garbage. So in terms of balance between the two it doesn't really matter that much.
Harvard Economics Professor Robert Barro, who has another article on the general subject here
Harvard Economics Professor Robert Barro, who has another article on the general subject here
Labels: Robert Barro quote
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 5:11 PM 
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I took a look at the bill...it's loaded with stuff that should be in regular appropriations bills, such as military O&M funding.
Yet we're told by the Obama administration that we're headed for catastrophe if this bill isn't passed right freakin' now.
Sorry...I don't think catastrophe will hit if we don't allocate $9 billion dollars for broadband expansion by Monday.
Yet we're told by the Obama administration that we're headed for catastrophe if this bill isn't passed right freakin' now.
Sorry...I don't think catastrophe will hit if we don't allocate $9 billion dollars for broadband expansion by Monday.
I'm wondering what you would call those rebate checks that went out last year. I don't remember you complaining that they were "throwing money at people" at that time.
And as far as I know, the only thing that was incentive based in the Bush tax plan was buying ridiculously over-sized vehicles.
How does lowering tax rates differ from "throwing money at people?"
And as far as I know, the only thing that was incentive based in the Bush tax plan was buying ridiculously over-sized vehicles.
How does lowering tax rates differ from "throwing money at people?"
The problem is that it's not even "throwing money at people". That might actually help a little. It's just a bunch of routine (i.e., NON-emergency) spending with a whole bunch of political pet projects thrown in.
To quote an old joke, "Truly it is a crock of shit, for it stinketh mightily."
To quote an old joke, "Truly it is a crock of shit, for it stinketh mightily."
The tax rebates (to actual tax payers) might have worked the first time it was used but failed, I believe, the second time. Calling a cash payment to someone who does not pay income taxes a tax rebate is an Orwellian lie.
Letting people who would otherwise have to pay taxes pay less so that they have more of their money in their pocket is different from a welfare payment in the moral nature of the government's action. Taking money from people who earned it and giving it to people who did not earn it is theft and wrong, no matter how many statutes authorize it. Thanks for the good questions, Mike. Eric, I agree this bill is bunk; if all government spending was stimulus, wouldn't Zimbabwe be the most prosperous nation in the world, rather than the disease ridden basket case which bad leadership has made it? We have had moderately bad leadership (hit or miss) for the past 20 years, now I believe we have unmitigated horrible leadership. Luck or proper leadership from a properly chastized GOP could get us out of this mess. I'm not holding my breath.
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Letting people who would otherwise have to pay taxes pay less so that they have more of their money in their pocket is different from a welfare payment in the moral nature of the government's action. Taking money from people who earned it and giving it to people who did not earn it is theft and wrong, no matter how many statutes authorize it. Thanks for the good questions, Mike. Eric, I agree this bill is bunk; if all government spending was stimulus, wouldn't Zimbabwe be the most prosperous nation in the world, rather than the disease ridden basket case which bad leadership has made it? We have had moderately bad leadership (hit or miss) for the past 20 years, now I believe we have unmitigated horrible leadership. Luck or proper leadership from a properly chastized GOP could get us out of this mess. I'm not holding my breath.
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