tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post7239786470290477037..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: The Proposition That the GOP Cares About the Burden of the Debt is BogusUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-88696674132916668502009-02-17T14:41:00.000-05:002009-02-17T14:41:00.000-05:00So now it seems that the Congressional Republicans...So now it seems that the Congressional Republicans and their colleagues back home in those state capitals may be at odds with one another:<BR/>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/us/politics/17repubs.html?_r=1&ref=politics<BR/><BR/>Do Governors and Congressional representatives from the same state bother to discuss issues with one another? Do they even follow the same agenda? Is it possible that they do not represent the same group of voters?<BR/>The question of whose interests are being represented in the Congress comes more to the fore when we ask some simple questions.<BR/>Not a single Republican in the House voted for a stimulus bill that is applicable to an almost infinitley disparate citizen group.<BR/>Well maybe not infinitely disparate, but certainly there are significant differences of economic need and political ideology are represented by those 178 House Republicans. But some how they vote as a block, en masse. The implication is clearly that those Republilcans have abandoned the interests and needs of their state constituents. The question is whose interests do they represent? Who benefits most by abandoning the effort to stimulate the economy in a balanced manner? If the only thing that all 178 members of the Republican causus finds acceptable is a big reduction in the taxes of the wealthiest Americans then we know who they care most about. We know that their intersests are ideological and their ideology is that of a pultocracy.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12971442888151627894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-77280977513488273982009-02-16T14:56:00.000-05:002009-02-16T14:56:00.000-05:00"Everything would be different if we had spent the..."Everything would be different if we had spent the last 8 years preserving the budget surpluses that Bill Clinton bequeathed to George Bush."<BR/><BR/>This reminds me of an old yiddish expresion which is far more charming in that language, but the point is still relevant in English.<BR/>It goes, "My mother would have been my father if she had had balls." If only.....!!<BR/><BR/>If GW and the Congress had not adventured into Iraq and Afghanistan we would have spent lots less. If Gramm and company had not deregulated the whole friggin' banking system we would have never gotten into the mess. If someone were actually held responsible for any of the stupidity that preceded this whole mess we might still be in the mess, but we might feel a little better about it. If those same financial geniuses were made to pay back the bonus monies generated by false profitability<BR/>they might think twice before building up a deck of cards again.<BR/><BR/>There are lots of ifs that could be discussed as a means of understanding what happened and how to be sure that it doesn't happen again. The fact is, however, that all the if actions led to a great deal of ill lgotten gains for a small and influential segment of our economy. The rule of thumb regarding felonious behavior, If you're going to steal, do it big, very big, too big to fail big. That way no one is ever going to have to say they're sorry.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12971442888151627894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-24154513585953918072009-02-16T10:56:00.000-05:002009-02-16T10:56:00.000-05:00So Republicans don't like the idea of incurring go...So Republicans don't like the idea of incurring government debt to stabilize the economy and financial system?<BR/><BR/>Of course it would have been cheaper to fix the fence than spend a week herding the cows back to pasture, but Republicans spent 30 years convincing us that a weak fence was a good fence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-77459138061981002352009-02-16T06:21:00.000-05:002009-02-16T06:21:00.000-05:00Prof. Simon Johnson of MIT (and major contributor ...Prof. Simon Johnson of MIT (and major contributor to The Baseline Scenario site) <A HREF="http://baselinescenario.com/2009/02/12/robbery-note-from-the-banking-oligarchs-this-morning/" REL="nofollow">put up a post</A> there recently about what he considered a “ransom note” from the US banking industry to the US Govt. He interpreted the "ransom note" (reproduced in the linked post) to mean “give us as much money as you can, or else”. He was shocked at the brazenness.<BR/><BR/>It seems reasonable therefore to interpret at least some of the opposition to a substantial stimulus package to what amounts to a tug-of-war between banks and the “real economy” for a big chunk of US Federal Govt. revenues over the next few years. The banks want the money for “recapitalisation” and people like Prof. Krugman want the money to maintain economic activity outside of Wall St.<BR/><BR/>One wonders whether, if there had been no (or a very small) stimulus package and all the money was dedicated to the banks, we would have seen the campaigning on the “burden of debt” issue at all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com