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Do you think that President Obama's stimulus plan will help get the United States out of a recession? Please explain why or why not.
My thoughts are:
I think it will make things better by 3rd or 4th quater and the recovery should be just as good.
Especially with the money being spent on the energy grid. I once saw a show on the history channel that said "we did not build the highways because we are a great nation we are a great nation because we built them" I think the same will be said 20 plus years down the road that "we did not promote alternative energy and a great power grid system because we are a great nation but we are a great nation because we have them"
Last edited by Josseppie; 02-22-2009 at 01:13 AM..
Yes, it will create SOME jobs. Although, I think they rushed it through without thinking and could have done much much MUCH better. Just like the bank bailout - someone screams, congress jumps without thinking, lots of bad news about wasted money afterwards.
It will help a bit with the recession but, it will not be good in the long term as we come out of the recession. Job stimulus is needed and could have been done better by a simple checklist when adding things to the bill - Does this item also create secondary jobs in addition to the jobs it directly sponsors? How many jobs will this item create per $1 million spent? No there were not checklists - just money grubbers jumping on the free money bandwagon because it was being pushed through too quickly without checks.
Hopefully, we will see some follow-on axing of parts of the bill that are discovered to be stupid and follow-on controls put on parts where money may get wasted as with the banking bailout.
When you are broke, the bills are coming in, and are in default on many debts, do you:
A. Spend more money.
B. Cut your spending.
C. Get another job to pay off your debt.
D. Both B and C.
This "stimulus" is going to fail. What needed to be done was severe budget cuts, along with tax cuts, or even tax elimination to businesses.
No, what Obama does is grow the Federal Government and deficit in times of reduced revenues.
All the Liberals complained about the debt and the Iraq war. I wonder if they are aware that just the interest on this "stimulus" is going to be more than the whole war combined.
That's not even taking into account the fact that we are spending future generations money without their say in the matter. Just slapping the debt in their laps and saying "Oh, we needed to make things better for us, so we just put you guys in debt".
There is little "stimulus" in the stimulus bill. It's a bunch of pork and waste and payoffs.
All it is, is more debt the people who are productive in society are going to be paying off for a long time.
The people that believe in all this stuff also have the false understanding that they are little children and the government is mommy and daddy, who scolds them, spoils them, tells them what to do. The reality is that our government belongs to US, it is not above us or lords over us. We OWN THE GOVERNMENT. So when they pass a garbage bill like this we will have to pay for it someday somehow. It is the same as you being broke and taking a huge cash advance on your credit card to go out and shop at high end department stores and eat 7 course dinners and take vegas vacations.
motorracer51 and I disagree about many things, but on this we are in absolute agreement. The Obama "stimulus" plan is a thinly veiled program to shift the responsibility of problems created by the dishonest, stupid, ignorant, irresponsible and imprudent onto the backs of the people who were honest, exercised good judgment, and behaved responsibly and prudently. It is like taking the car keys away from a safe, prudent driver and giving them to the drunk who just wrecked his car. Why?--well the drunk needs another car, now doesn't he?
My "stimulus" plan would be quite simple--increase FDIC deposit insurance up to $300,000 per individual, and provide up to $300,000 of federal deposit insurance to each individual's IRA, pension fund, or 401K retirement plan. Then, let all of the banks that made imprudent loans go under, and let all of the borrowers who borrowed irresponsibly go through the foreclosure process if they can not make their payments. I would also eliminate ALL tax deductibility for interest paid, and exempt the first $20,000 of interest or dividend income per individual from taxation. I would also set a minimum "floor" price for highway motor fuels of $5.00 per gallon, and require the federal fuel tax to be the difference between the market price for fuel and $5.00. That tax money would be earmarked specifically for funding the Social Security Trust Fund, and I would prohibit the federal government from borrowing against those funds, or for using them for any other purpose.
Whether or not it will work remains to be seen. I wish there had been more money given toward infrastructure reconstruction.
Modernizing the highway infrastructure will pay long-term dividends over the next 50 years, much like Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System did when it was built. The only other alternative than government debt is public-private partnerships, aka tollways. Do you really want to pay-per-mile on top of the gas tax?
The electrical grid also needs to be modernized and no single entity has shown interest in doing so. Up to 50% of the electricity we generate is lost in the grid and never utilized. The amount of cost & energy savings realized by digitizing the grid is immense.
It will help but it is to small to solve the problem on its own. It's less then 3% of GDP while China's plan spends 30% of GDP. The US needs to get at least to 10% of GDP if it really wants to get serious about a stimulus plan.
It all depends on how much more Hillary can convince the Chinese Communists to "invest" in us. She's over there trying to convince them to buy up the USA, all our assets.
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