A worthy video & an unworthy sitmlus bill.

Funny and awesome.




The stimulus bill that will inevitably pass is, being kind, extremely disappointing. What is the goal here?

If it is purely short term relief of suffering then yes much of it goes toward that goal, but so much of it is just a Democrat Party stimulus. Nation before party people!

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan office of congress that analyzes upcoming legislation, estimates that,

"CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing."

What is the point then? To get the economy back on track or to demonstrate one's compassion?

I also read this interview with a Harvard economist. In answer to his assessment of the legislation:

This is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s. I don't know what to say. I mean it's wasting a tremendous amount of money. It has some simplistic theory that I don't think will work, so I don't think the expenditure stuff is going to have the intended effect. I don't think it will expand the economy. And the tax cutting isn't really geared toward incentives. It's not really geared to lowering tax rates; it's more along the lines of throwing money at people. On both sides I think it's garbage. So in terms of balance between the two it doesn't really matter that much.

Garbage.

There are so many other options that will create real long term jobs in the real productive economy than this porktastic train wreck.

How about:

1. A temporary lifting of the capital gains tax until 2 consecutive quarters of economic growth.
2. $20 - 30k tax credit to each net increase in a business' payroll in 2009.
3. $20 - 30k tax credit for each new home purchased in 2009.
4. Directly fund every infrastructure project green lighted to go in 2009 (meaning they've passed all requisite planning and review processes and just need funds).
5. Reduce corporate tax rate enough to shock people and get the attention of the business world.

In short get people working now! Not later, and not on completely temporary projects. When the housing and financial industries recover so will the rest of the economy. The above will cost so much less than what is on the table now, and it will avoid the long term consequences of so much debt.