Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave
When first we practice to deceive!¹
Who conceived of this affront to governance and logic. We are faced with the GOPression, which is on track to be worst then the Depression unless reasoned and competent action is taken, and taken quickly, and the choice of the powers that be to lead the rescue is the gang of four mediocrities.
Three lawyers and a Senate staffer, that is the employment history of this group prior to public office. None of them is on either the Senate committees on Banking or Finance, although three of the four are on Appropriations. Two Republicans, a Democrat, and an Independent, when the Democrats are in the majority? Maine, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Nebraska – are there no members from the South, Midwest, or West available? The single Democrat is 60th in Senate seniority, was no one else available?
The result they are discussing is a disaster. People should start looking for sturdy boxes to live in, because these people just don’t understand what is happening.
After the fold I have a couple of graphics that lay out the problem in terms even Senators should be able to understand.
First up is a chart of Job losses in recent recessions [via Rook’s Rant] that was created by Nancy Pelosi’s staff. The chart contains only hard numbers, no projections.
The blue is the 1990 recession; the red line is 2001, and the green line is the GOPression. The vertical lines are months, and the horizontal lines represent a half million jobs. It took 2 years and 9 months to recover from 1990, more that four years for 2001, so imagine how many years it will be before get out of this mess, when the numbers haven’t even begun to level out.
The next chart is from Moody’s economics.com [via Stop The Press!] showing the effects of various stimulus strategies. It is fairly obvious that tax cuts, that constitute a major portion of the gang of four’s bill, are worse than worthless. They make the deficits worse and offer no stimulus.
I have a news flash for the Senate: if you can afford to buy a car or a home in the current conditions, you don’t need any help. Those provisions are welfare for the wealthy, plain and simple. If those provisions stay in the final bill, anyone who uses them should have to use the same procedures required of people applying for food stamps.
We have been through this before and know what works. We should be doing it.
1. Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto VI, Stanza 17
3 comments
A Democrat and a Republican were looking at a horse called Economy and why it was not moving. “It’s sick,” the Democrat said. “We need to take it to the vet and have him looked at and find out what’s wrong with him.” “No no,” the Republican replied, “he’s just lazy. I’ll beat him with my big stick called Tax Cut and he’ll be back out there ploughing the field in no time.” So the Republican started beating the horse with the big stick called Tax Cut. An hour or so later and the Democrat walked around to the front of the horse and noted, “He’s not breathing. I think he’s dead.” The Republican replied, “no, he’s just pining for the fjords. If I beat him some more with my big stick called Tax Cut, he’ll be out there ploughing the field in a jiffy.” A few hours after that, the Democrat opened Economy’s mouth, and noted flies buzzing out. “This Economy is rotting,” the Democrat said, and the Republican said “I guess I’ll have to beat him with my big stick called Tax Cut even more, then.” The Democrat shook his head and said, “You’re beating a dead horse, dude! You killed the Economy by not taking him to the vet and getting what ailed him fixed!” Then the Republican glared at the Democrat and said, “You’re not being bipartisan. We have to both beat Economy with this big stick called Tax Cut or you’re just a hater.” And that is where we’re at right now.
– Badtux the Parable Penguin
…Mrs Jack K. mentioned to me late last fall that we should sell our 19-foot camp trailer and the old dinosaur-chewing F 250 that has been my long and much-beloved tow vehicle because of the fuel costs that have so profoundly affected our RV use over the last couple of years. My argument is quite simply that we may want to hold on on to the only pieces of real property to which we actually hold free and clear title, just in case things go horribly and absolutely south…
Times are pretty bad when two decades-long permanent full-time federal employees are having these sorts of discussions….
Jack K., the Grumpy Forester´s last blog post..The Ineffable Power Of Paybacks
They keep chanting their mantra, Badtux, and no one calls them on it. It is frustrating when you live in an area that is in trouble. My area has been used to 2% unemployment because of construction, and now we have caught up with the rest of the country.
I’m starting to hear it a lot of civil service people down here, Jack. People are really uncertain what is going to happen, because the state and local governments are starting to lay people off. The Federal civil service people are wondering if they will be next, and many have mortgages on homes that had inflated values when they were bought. People who were planning to retire based in large part on the value of their homes, are in trouble.