Thursday, January 24, 2008

Stimulus

Well I guess the House passed a bill compromising yet another IRS check by lowering to amount from the Repub proposed $800 to $300. Once again Krugman reminds us that this is probably not the best idea and will likely be a disappointment in the long run.
Remember that we just went through this. What it caused was continued deficit spending and the actual stimulus to the economy was weak when compared to the amount doled out. I agree with Krugman(see below) that to really make an economic stimulus package that works, you need to put the money in the hands of those that will spend it right away and on things that are commodity related. I also agree that the larger problem here isn't with the administration, it's with our Democratic Congress:

You can blame the Bush administration, whose hostility to helping those in need is now getting in the way of good economic policy. But I’m also disappointed with the Democratic leadership, for not standing up more forcefully.


And I linked to this in the previous post, but Greenwald is right that "Harry Reid -- who has (a) done more than any other individual to ensure that Bush's demands for telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping powers will be met in full and (b) allowed the Republicans all year to block virtually every bill without having to bother to actually filibuster". If Democratic leaders don't stand by democrats and instead Reid "went to the Senate floor yesterday and, with the scripted assistance of Mitch McConnell and Pat Leahy, warned Chris Dodd, Russ Feingold and others that they would be selfishly wreaking havoc on the schedules of their fellow Senators (making them work over the weekend, ruining their planned "retreat," and even preventing them from going to Davos!) if they bothered everyone with their annoying, pointless little filibuster." This pointless filibuster is something that the majority of Americans want, that is why people like Harry Reid have jobs today. If Democrats in Congress don't start to realize this, we're going to have a new administration with a Democratic President and a Republican Congress.

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