2 Weeks 2 Late

Posted by on . 7 comments.

tehlifelein

Not the new Vin Diesel movie, your President:

“Come on, we are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin. We can’t embrace a losing formula that says only tax cuts will work for every challenge we face.”

This was as true two weeks ago as it is tonight. Yet the “very same policies” still make up about a third or more of a shrinking bill. Worse, Obama let Republicans take the field and play the game all by themselves for 14 days. “Better late than never” you say? Well, let’s take a look at what’s happened during this crucial time:

  • While most Americans support a stimulus, Republicans have convinced many that Obama’s bill isn’t right.
  • Despite the pre-compromise of $300 billions worth of tax cuts in the bill, not a single House Republican voted for the stimulus, which even overshadowed the fact that the bill passed.
  • Obama has taken a beating in the media for “not being bipartisan enough.”
  • The longer this drags on, the more needed spending gets cut, and the more absurd tax cuts find their way into the Senate version.
  • The level of debate has dipped so low that we’re arguing over whether government is capable of creating jobs and if spending is actually stimulative .

    • And of course:

  • ~250,000 more Americans have lost their jobs.

    • Still clinging to “better late than never?” Rolling back all of this nonsense and repairing the additional damage is going to take even more time, effort and political capital because Republicans have had the microphone all to themselves. Obama’s just starting to make a case other than “I want 80 votes.” Even in the current best case scenario – the bill passes the Senate over the weekend, Dems manage to strip out some tax cuts and add back some of the jettisoned spending in conference – we’re left with a bill that could easily have been a lot better, a weakened President, and two weeks of accrued opportunity cost. All because Obama decided to indulge in a failed branding exercise.

    Even though passing a stimulus is the most pressing issue, Democrats still need to work at chipping away at the calcified conventional wisdom stupidity of the Reagan-Bush-Bush era. And for the first time in eight years, there’s a Democrat in the bully pulpit. Why did Obama let Republicans rollout their false panacea unopposed when to get anything done he’ll need to discredit almost everything they’ve been saying? This has been a failure on every level, and people are only just starting to get it.

    Comments

    1. Reese Badman says:
      February 10, 2009 at 11:33 am

      Can someone explain to me how tax cuts are EVER a bad idea? The government doesn’t produce anything, they get their money from US. We work, we earn it, and we turn a large portion of our earnings over to the people we elect. When the economy (which is US and OUR SPENDING) turns sour, THE way to turn it around is to let US keep more of our hard earned dollars. The total number of Government employees in the entire country numbers in the thousands, but there are 180 Million working Americans. So I’m supposed to give more of my money to a few thousand buearocrats who have yet to prove to any of us that they know how to spend it wisely??? Tax cuts ALWAYS work, plain and simple. Smaller government is the answer, NOT the increases in government size and spending this ridiculous bill will create. The statement about “the very same policies that threw our economy into a tailspin” for the last eight years is categorically INACCURATE! Spending increased in the last years because of a.) the attacks on 9/11 impacting our economy b.) Spending on 2 critical warfronts to PROTECT US from similar attacks and c.) Government’s insistance that every problem can be solved by the taxpayer blindly giving them more money. In a capitalist Republic (which, last time I checked, we are), more government is NEVER the answer. Put more money in the hands of the people and this thing will turn around. Greed and stupidity are to blame for where we are, and the average American is not the greedy idiot who wrote the checks that put us here. Don’t punish me and my income for the shortcomings of an inept system.

    2. matt says:
      February 10, 2009 at 11:40 am

      this are all tired, disproven, thoroughly failed talking points.

      but this is the most classic comment ever given the above nonsense:

      Don’t punish me and my income for the shortcomings of an inept system.

      that system is free market capitalism. if that system is inept, the whole house of cards that supports unlimited perpetual tax cuts comes falling down.

    3. Reese Badman says:
      February 10, 2009 at 11:55 am

      I never said capitalism is what’s failing. Capitalism is the only thing keeping our heads above water! The system I refer to is a system where government can make incredibly dangerous decisions about how much money they take from the American people and what they do with that money. I have NO say in that process. I can call my Senators and Representatives until I’m blue in the face, but if they’ve decided this stimulus is the answer, I’m powerless. They’re not representing us, which is the job we pay them to do in the first place. In what sane world is MORE SPENDING the solution to an economic crisis? Look at your own personal budget – if you don’t have enough money to pay the mortgage, the car payment and buy groceries, you don’t spend MORE MONEY ON CREDIT to fix the problem. And you certainly don’t hand the credit card bill to your kids and ask them to pay it for you when they’re older. That is EXACTLY what this bloated supposed “stimulus” is doing – mortaging our future (and our kids’ futures) to give Americans the illusion of a bolstered economy. If less than 10% of this bill’s spending actually finds its way into our economy in the nexty 12 months, which is the case, how can congress justify the other 90%? If it doesn’t help the majority of Americans NOW, then don’t call it a stimulus. Call it what it is – scaring Americans into allowing government to spend money we don’t have on programs we don’t need.

    4. matt says:
      February 10, 2009 at 11:57 am

      i wonder if/how you walk without falling down

    5. Reese Badman says:
      February 10, 2009 at 12:05 pm

      Thank you for getting exactly where I was sure you would arrive – personal attacks. We were having a great conversation there; you had your opinion, I had mine, and we challenged each other to think in different ways. And your professional, well thought-out response was: “I wonder if/how you walk without falling down”. Great way to move forward. I’ve suddenly realized that this whole debate was a waste of my time, since you clearly haven’t listened to a thing I’ve said. Good luck with your blog.

    6. matt says:
      February 10, 2009 at 12:07 pm

      you had your opinion, I had mine

      you have a false equivalency problem there.

    7. sarabeth says:
      February 10, 2009 at 3:44 pm

      Sorry, Reese, but we actually don’t think a single thing you said was worth listening to.

      And, by the way, there was no “great conversation” or “whole debate” except in your mind.

      The relationship you think you had with Matt, I’m sorry to say, is just a fantasy. (Nullus.)

      And, finally, we are realists; that is to say, we know better than to challenge people like you to think.