someone is confused
Duncan Black, February 4:I know I should never stop being surprised at how stupid Republicans want our political debate to be, but I just can't.Duncan Black, February 10:
There better and worse ways to spend money, both in terms of how sensible projects are and how much of a stimulative effect those expenditures will have, but all spending is stimulus.
Paying people to dig holes and then fill them up again would be stupid spending, but it would still be very effective stimulus.
Aside from the fact that it's all about bailing out Tim's friends, it's pretty clear that they still have no idea what they're doing. It's just throwing good money after bad.
posted by Chris Bray @ 8:55 AM
4 Comments:
I'm not sure I think this is fair, because the topics seem to be different.
Let's say that I have two goals, one of which is to increase the country's capacity to fight fires, and one is to stimulate the country's economy. Further, my plan for the latter is a tax cut combined with spending, and my plan for the former is to increase the pay of the top-level fire fighting administrator in each county to $800,000 a year. Arguably, both of these plans would constitute stimulus, but that doesn't mean I've addressed my firefighting goal.
The question is whether the money will help unfreeze the credit markets and/or resolve the issues in the financial sector. In that sense, the spending might be throwing good money after bad.
If the argument is that it doesn't really matter anyway, because the bank money will serve as stimulus, I think that given the money being proposed to rescue the banks is significantly larger than the stimulus bill, and that it is being spent in a very particular way, and that this is being advertised as something other than spending (at least under some plans), the concerns are warranted.
If the argument is that the first post seems to be dismissing such differences, Black isn't saying (and is specifically saying that he's not saying) there aren't better or worse ways of spending the money, he's arguing against the republican talking point that some forms of spending are somehow categorically different when it comes to stimulus.
Black's points seem compatible.
That's a fair argument, and I accept most of it. But Eschaton is still like watching a ping pong game, these days: The Republicans are crazy to question the ways that Obama wants spend money fixing the econ- wait, he wants to do what? That's crazy!
At some level, it all percolates out into the economy -- trickle down bailouts! -- as billionaires pay to have their estates landscaped, their airplanes buffed and polished, and their history professors lavishly compensated. (I made that last part up, in case anyone feels like doing it.) All spending is stimulus!
Again, I get what you're saying, and I don't really disagree. But it seems like the Democratic talking point is to say that the Republicans are crazy for asking questions that quite a few Democrats are asking, too.
"But it seems like the Democratic talking point is to say that the Republicans are crazy for asking questions that quite a few Democrats are asking, too."
Aye, there's the rub.
A wise old man once told me, "Taxes have nothing to do with money; taxes are about policy.
So, to borrow on your previous analogy: What policy amounts to "digging and filling holes" and what policy offers benefit to the country as a whole? Those questions examined fully, whether advanced by Republicans or Democrats, are entirely relevant.
The campaign against pork was originally a bi-partisan initiative based on the definition of "pork" as being a type of spending that was entirely self-serving and parochial and that did not benefit the country as a whole.
Accordingly, all elected officials should seriously question all spending; ostensibly, this is why the people elect them.
Like the old reporter told the young reporter, "If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out!"
Speaking of stimulus, I hear that your Republican state legislators want to make it harder to afford property by making it easier to buy property.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home