Comments on: Specter: Why I Supported the Stimulus

By: vulcanhammer

vulcanhammer — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:40:05 +0000

Darma–Spending is stimulus and it creates jobs? The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 sent cash totaling over $100 billion to individuals and families; it did not create the jobs (on the contrary, jobs growth fell flat)and it failed to “stimulate” the economy as projected by those that passionately supported it. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 was successful in creating more national debt.
As an “economic scholar,” I’m sure that you are familiar with Milton Friedman’s permanent income theory, which holds that temporary as distinct from permanent increases in income do not lead to significant increases in consumption. I have yet to see Friedman’s theory disproven. The current stimulus package may forestall 1-2% off the unemployment rate but it will not create the strong economy that Democrats and their mouth pieces say that it will.

I’ve had major disagreements with Republicans over the last eight years. But on this issue, they are right to oppose this massive and wasteful package.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:14:04 +0000

Spending has been proven over and over to only create TEMPORARY jobs. The CBO even explains this and shows that this bill in particular’s job impact will be negligible in just a few years. I’m not saying we should do nothing, but this bill will add nearly 10% to our national debt and in fact only make our problems worse in the long run. I sincerely believe that and I believe the Republicans in office believe that as well (if you watched CSPAN2 you can see they’re clearly backing up why they did not support the bill).

Standing against a bill that will make things worse isn’t the same as sticking your head in the sand. I’m disappointed that the House Republicans didn’t shout warnings more loudly. Public support for the bill continues to fall thanks to the Senate Republicans standing up against it. If the House Republicans were more vocal, perhaps this bill could have been salvaged into something that might have made a difference.

By: Darma

Darma — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:56:09 +0000

Though I respect the sentiment you are trying to express here, House Republicans are losing touch with the American people taking the Hoover argument you’ve made yourself here.

Spending is stimulus. It creates jobs. The only people disagreeing on that are Republicans, and it’s starting to make us look desperate and petty. It’s one thing to vote as a conservative, quite another to shove one’s head up one’s ass in order to avoid acknowledging no political philosophy answers every question in every scenario.

As an economics scholar first, Republican second, I am disappointed with the poor rationale coming from within my own party on this one.

By: vulcanhammer

vulcanhammer — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:44:32 +0000

The RINO’s just served up taxpayers to be cleaned out. I’m not surprised but I was holding out some hope (slim, very slim) for the bill to get dumped.