Failed policies of the past; Barack's dreams, America's nightmares

I am sick of Barack Obama discussing the “failed policies of the past”. The man has no idea what he is talking about, and many economists agree. It isn’t simply them though, even with all this demand for bipartisanship, many politicians can see that this is not what America needs. This isn’t stimulus, it is over spending which will undermine the very system it is supposed to help. Don’t think for one second that these Republicans who are supporting the “porkulus” package (as many are referring to it now), are somehow “doing the right thing”. This is pure politics, people looking to benefit themselves in the name of “the common good”. There is nothing “patriotic” about this, especially not the “Buy American” plan. It is simply “saviour-based” economic policy, as South Carolina’s Republican governor Mark Sanford said yesterday.

I will be honest here, I am infuriated with the way things have gone since the election. Instead of having a President who realized that he got elected by a very narrow popular vote, which came from fewer voters than the previous election, Obama thinks that he can allow his party to simply abuse the system, that he can simply put his political allies and supporters into positions power no matter their history (or tax payment record). To add insult to the injury, after spending months discussing, warning even, how the Democrats were looking at spending A TRILLION DOLLARS if Obama was elected, that all these promises would lead to a massive increase in government spending, after being told by many of his supporters that it wouldn’t happen, we are now a few steps away from passing THE FIRST “stimulus” package, which will cost American tax payers A TRILLION DOLLARS. I would be screaming from the rooftops “I told you so” if it would somehow allow me some comfort, but it doesn’t.

To clarify, the reason I say “stimulus” and not stimulus, is because this bill doesn’t help the economy much, if at all. As the Heritage Foundation pointed out, House Tax Committee staff can’t even say for certain that even one job will be created out of this spending. Much of these “green jobs” are simply replacements for lost jobs, which are now inefficient due to the cost of employment and the lack of productivity (paying someone to fulfill your agenda doesn’t really help the country). On top of that, as we can see in this article, much of the spending if to fulfill promises that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Obama made to a variety of supporters, including the National Education Association (NEA). This isn’t about wealth distribution or providing social programs for the “middle class”, it is about scratching the backs of those who were promised favours for campaign support. Just “more of the same” from politicians who learned how to use and abuse the system…

It isn’t simply the Heritage Foundation, as Megan McArdle at The Atlantic pointed out in a recent post, many economists like Will Wilkinson believe that support for this bill goes against the basic principles of macroeconomic theory. Wilkinson himself stated that the Paul Krugman’s support goes against basic intermediate-level textbook theory, sticking to this idea that winning the battle for public opinion will somehow justify this mess. Seeing as how Krugman is a New York Time’s op-ed columnist, it doesn’t surprise me that he would let politics influence his opinion on this bill. It could be that Krugman himself is looking for an advisory position to the Obama Administration, like Milton Friedman was to Reagan, and that ignoring second-year macroeconomics is somehow going to help establish him as THE leading expert in his field. I might only have a bachelors in the subject, but even I can see that this man’s mind isn’t opinions aren’t grounded in REAL economic theory.

I will be the first to say that a stimulus bill is needed, just not this one. I will also admit that I did support the first bailout, mainly because the original idea was sound. The purchasing of bad mortgages helps stabilize property prices but reducing supply. Once the collapse occurred, the problem was that all these defaulted mortgages, all these unsold properties which were forced back into the market, increasing supply, thus forcing prices downwards. Simply giving the money to the banks, as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson did instead, only provides a “float” to keep the banks running, providing very little for the housing market itself. The same concept for Paulson’s failure applies here, that by throwing money at the economy, somehow it will pull the country out of the recession it is now facing. The problem is that, unlike Paulson, none of this money is being directed properly at ANYTHING that will generate REAL stimulus. That somehow simply spending A TRILLION DOLLARS will fix the country’s problems. Huh? Excuse me if I sound confused, but you would be too after finishing a degree in economics and seeing this… Mind-boggling…

Now I can go on discussing how there is something to be said about the government stepping in to help the economy, I can even point out the importance of government agencies properly applying competition law in preventing the free-market from running wild (Microsoft’s dominance of the software market in the Nineties comes to mind), but this spending spree is far more than the “guiding hand of government”. The instant Obama started telling Corporate America that “now is not the time for profits”, myself, as well as others, knew that he was incapable of fixing the economic crisis. NEWSFLASH Barack, profits drive the economy, provide incentives for innovation, create REAL jobs, etc not your backwards “Obamanomics”. Your plans have been tried and failed numerous times before, and even now we see Venezuela suffering from the same kind of socialist policy you want to ram down the throats of America. We can see that this bill is moving too fast, but that is part of the plan isn’t it? Push it through at “break-neck speed” so that it can’t be accounted for later right? Like with the “Trojan Horse” health-care plan? Politics as usual…

I just hope that all Americans, especially those in the media start waking up to this… This “change” everyone keeps dreaming about may turn into a real nightmare…

UPDATE: For those looking for Barack Obama’s “Lenin inspired” statements to Wall Street, both Nice Deb and Conservatives With Attitude have articles about it. The video proof of his ignorance is below, along with CNBC’s Jim Cramer’s reaction to it…

Let’s hope we only have to suffer through this socialist’s incompetence for four years. I would hate to see the damage he does if given a second term…

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has a post up regarding a stimulus protest in Fort. Myers, Florida tomorrow. Obama is going down there to rally support for his “porkulus” bill, and some “unpatriotic” Americans are ready to “rain on his parade”.

I guess “campaigning” is all he is good at…

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has her post up about Obama’s press conference. I will say this, if anyone was surprised that the MSM didn’t question Barack on the obvious problems with this bill, they were most likely living under a rock for the last year. This is getting disgusting…

On wonders whether or not this media bias will continue for his entire presidency… Will they start reporting when the country enters a depression due to his mismanagement? Pathetic…

UPDATE: I said this was only the beginning, and now information is coming out about TARP II. Michelle Malkin has more on this disgusting waste of money… Awful…

Update: While I wish I could have provided a more detailed breakdown of the points I raised in this post, Nice Deb does a great job in her newest one. I recommend it for those who had trouble understanding some of the concepts I brought up, or if they would simply like more examples of the wasteful spending found in the “porkulus” bill.

It is nice to know I am not the only one railing about this…

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