Well, here's a strategy. You may have heard the recent kerfluffle over the stimulus plan. Especially the quote from a local bigwig politician John Boehner of the 8th District of Ohio. He's into whips or something. Anyway, you might have heard his quote about the stimulus plan. I believe it was exactly, "OMG!"
Anyway, as a part of this media onslaught where the Republicans think it's a bad idea to deficit spend to correct a crappy economy that they brought upon us all by, get this, deficit spending.
But that's not the real conversation going on here. See, with each of the conservatives who got up to expound upon being born-again to fiscal sobriety (think they get chits for every thirty days until they get their one-year button?) they also set in the ear-worm. If the economy isn't fixed in 6-months the stimulus plan will be a failure. You know, even though every sane economist out there pretty much thinks the economy is going to be in the toilet for the next six-months no matter what happens, including the second-coming. And then they all lined up, after the President made a personal appeal (and they begged to have pictures taken with him), to vote onmass to vote against the program.
So, basically they're framing the debate to see the economic stimulus plan fail. Well, actually to not give it a chance before declaring it a failure. Forget the economy, forget the balance of tax cuts to spending, forget all that other hand-waving this debate is about the 2010 election.
DNC, hello, wake up. Time to scuttle that plan. It's easy to do at this point. Like exposing their plan in front of the media. Showing the country just how low the opposition is willing to go to make political hay. Like trashing their perosnal lives to make a point.
3 comments:
I spent Saturday afternoon at a high school speech and debate tournament and listened to several students address the stimulus package. I hadn't heard the numbers very clearly until one of the speeches ran down what the break down of the "stimulus" package was paying for and how many jobs it expects to create.
I nearly stopped breathing.
If economists say that nothing we do now can make a difference, can I please have my future back?
Cassie, from Whatever
A freakin' men, Steve.
I love it when Republicans start going on about fiscal responsibility. Funny how they can't see their way to spending a penny on the economy unless it involves, oh say, F-22 Raptors that have absolutely no mission whatsoever but are really, really good at burning through $100K+ of JP and spare parts in an hour. Or the CGX littoral class cruiser, at $3B a copy - this after decomming the first five Aegis cruisers fifteen years early and who were more than capable of performing the exact same mission, or the B2 Spirit which is so expensive that we can't base it anywhere but the heartland and don't dare risk it on real missions. Or when it comes to handing out billions to Haliburton, or KBR, or Blackwater when our own troops don't have proper equipment.
Yeah, I've had more than enough of Republican fiscal responsibility. If I'm going to mortgage my kid's future, let's at least pump money into the economy in areas that benefit all of us and not just the Beltway Bandits.
Cassie, well, yes, there's a lot of spending in the bill. Some of it I'll agree just isn't needed in this stimulus plan. Some of it may look like frivolous, but it will put people back to work. Some of that is direct (like re sodding the mall), some of that is indirect (as the push to make all medical records electronic). As for the economist, you have to take into account that just like there are various flavors of Christianity, there are just as many economic theories that have their feverant acolytes (Kinsey, Cainian, Supply Side, Demand, Free Trade, relegated trade, free market, etc). One of the lessons of the Great Depression was to not act slowly or timidly. However, there are some economists (of the Free Market varieties) believe that since government spending can't do anything, there should be no government spending and the economy will sort itself out. And they're right, it will. After another Great Depression.
Just how and where to act is also hotly debated. Currently the Legislature is debating Program Spending versus Tax Cuts.
Jim. Wait, they mothballed the Aegis? The cornerstone of the battlecube (don't know the current name, for the Army it's now LANWarrior) for the Navy? I appreciate that anti-missile tech has advanced a little, but did we suddenly just forget about Harpoon/Silkworm missile threats? Or isn't anybody looking at China's expansion into a blue water fleet. Who is running interference for Battle Groups now? A littoral ship is nice, and looks cool going down the waterways (although it reminds me of Soviet design), but it seems like we've got a big hole in the Fleet in case things get hot against a state actor. And it's not like we can squirt those off the construction docks in a few weeks.
Reminds me of how a certain president decided to EOL the space shuttle at least five years before we could have a replacement vehicle up and running.
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