Who’s writing her material nowadays?
Despite the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February, unemployment climbed to 10.2 percent in October. While critics cite the jobless rate as a sign that the stimulus has failed, Pelosi argues that the federal government is just not trying hard enough.On the one hand, the House Democrats are proposing new legislation (that is, deficit spending) to create jobs while pushing through a massive health care bill that will undoubtably destroy jobs by putting expensive new mandates on business. Is Nancy Pelosi insane or is this a bit she’s doing?
"We have to shed any weakness that anybody may have about not wanting to be confrontational on this subject for fear that we'd be labeled not sensitive to the deficit," Pelosi said, in a recording posted by Think Progress.
"The American people have an anger about the growth of the deficit because they're not getting anything for it. ... If somebody has the idea that the percentage of GDP of what our national debt is will go up a bit, but they will now -- and their neighbors and their children -- will have jobs, I think they could absorb that, and then we ride it out and bring money in," she said.
3 comments:
The bulk of the stimulus package has yet to be rolled out into the system, but sure, why not? Bush's policies needed years, or even several generations of history, to be properly judged. But Mr. Stimulus, he dead.
Remember this past Drudgey spring, when the stock market dropped "in response to" Obama and Biden "immediately following" various public statements? We haven't heard that one lately. Instant economic cause and effect can be such a fickle mistress.
Well, that raises a quesion of competence. We were told that we needed to pass the stimulus - double quick! - or unemployment would rise above 8%. Now the spending is so leisurely and haphazard, we're building dog parks that Obama swore would not be built.
Crazy idea: instead of taking on more public debt that depresses private borrowing why don't we do things that will help businesses to hire people?
History called ahead, BTW. She said that thanks to entitlement spending, we're going to owned by the Chinese in a couple years.
NY Times, Nov. 21:
"Nearly a tenth of the package, $70 billion, comes from a provision adjusting the alternative minimum tax so it does not hit middle-income taxpayers this year. That routine fix, which would do nothing to stimulate the economy, was added in part to seek Republican votes. But to keep the package’s overall cost down, provisions that would stimulate the economy — like aid to revenue-starved states and infrastructure projects — got less as a result."
Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi is quoted:
"The stimulus is doing what it was supposed to do—it is contributing to ending the recession. In my view, without the stimulus, G.D.P would still be negative and unemployment would be firmly over 11 percent."
Zandi is a Democrat who worked for John McCain's campaign, and who pushed for a larger stimulus plan.
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