Quote:
Originally Posted by Snake Doctor
Great article about this
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.ht...6-61336864e25c
Everyone both democrat and republican can agree that what got us all the way out of the Great Depression was WWII.
Can you think of more wasteful spending than on tanks and planes and ships that are just going to be blown up on the battlefield?
I realize we needed to fight that war...but from an economic standpoint, building all of those tanks, planes, and ships and just dumping them into the ocean would have had the same effect on the economy...or as Keynes once said, government should pay people to dig holes and then fill them up again.
Spending money on anything creates demand and stimulates the economy. The difference between the democrats now and the republicans for the past 8 years is that this bill is a response to an economy that needs stimulus.....the republicans were spending money just to spend money and reward their contributors/constituents etc.
If the dems play the same games with the regular budget when it comes time to write that, I'll agree 100% with you that it's bullshit and should stop....but a stimulus package by definition needs to be deficit spending and needs to happen quickly.  |
I'm not arguing the spending aspect. I've said that I agree with a stimulus plan. I agree that creating jobs is necessary and would be beneficial. I'm not even arguing over the dollar amounts.
What I'm arguing over is what the money is spent on. There is a big difference in using stimulus dollars to build a state-of-the-art railway system and spending it to start a stop-smoking program. One will add to our overall infrastructure and be useful for decades. The other is a black hole of waste. So if you're going to spend a trillion dollars, why not spend all of it on stuff that will benefit us for decades to come? Rebuilding railways, roads, sewers, bridges, schools, government buildings, etc. That is where all the money should go. Not toward buying free condoms for people.
And please don't tell me that you really don't believe that these programs don't benefit contributors and supporters of Democrats. There is a reason unions, community organizations, and environmental groups are cashing in on this. I'm not saying that some of that spending isn't justified, just saying it's ridiculous to believe that these guys aren't paying off the people who helped put them in power.