
Originally Posted by
SafetyBlitz
Did you read the chart of how that money was spent?
Lets look at it from each spending bubble on that chart:
The largest chunk of the stimulus is middle class tax cuts. Now a comrade like me will say that tax cuts are NOT the best way to create jobs, but what do I know, I'm Marko Ramius. But if we're going to call the rich "job creators", then what are the middle class? And how does middle class tax cuts create jobs? Perhaps Obama and the Politburo decided that the middle class got hit the hardest in this recession, and ol' Uncle Sam doesn't need to take as much out of their checks.
The second largest part is state and local fiscal relief. Hmm... I wonder, is this job creating or job saving? Is this a "holy sh*t, the state of New York will have to fire X number of fireman, cops and teachers if they don't get some help because we're f***ing bankrupt"? Or is this "hey, heres some money, go out and hire new civil servants, we've got the current pensions all covered..."?
The third largest part, at $111 billion, is infrastructure and science stimulus spending. This is really the first chunk that actually was intended to provide jobs on the short term... although that's really only the infrastructure part, the spending in science is not a classic immediate "job creator" more like a long term investment. But OK, I'll give ya that we haven't created tons of new infrastructure jobs - we would've heard about it from Obama and the campaign by now if that had happened.
Fourth largest, $81 billion, is 'protecting the vulnerable'. Welfare and food stamps for the tons of people who just lost their job. Neither is a job creator.
I can continue onto the next pieces of that chart, but the point is, there's a reason this administration wanted a stimulus AND a jobs bill. The way the banks were bailed out was the way the stimulus bailed out the American economy. It was about propping up a struggling economy and a device for lessening the effect of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression on the middle and lower classes.
Bookmarks