A Rant on Republicans, Spending, Hypocrisy, the Economy, and Fundamental Change

Recently, President Obama signed into law a new stimulus plan that is intended to jolt the economy, stabilize a volatile market, and rebuild the United State’s crumbling infrastructure.  Now, to be sure, there is a lot of uneasiness with developing an almost trillion dollar spending bill that is not associated with the federal government’s fiscal budget. Many Americans question the logic of spending our way out of an economic slump and paying for those who – neither may nor may not -have made foolish credit decisions.  The Republicans in Congress are trying to exploit the economic fears of the American people by becoming the party of "No" when it comes to the President’s economic recovery package.  Republicans claim that there is too much "pork barrel spending," not enough tax cuts for small business owners, and taxes will have to be raised to pay down the national debt and keep the government running. Ok, so Republicans do have philosophical differences with Democrats on spending and taxes but for six of the last eight years, the small government, fiscally responsible Republicans – who controlled both houses of Congress, the White House, and the Judiciary – have been spending the money of the American tax payer like a drunken sailor on two wars and passing spending bills laden with "pork" for their own states and districts.  I would like to remind people that it was George W. Bush who expanded government and created the new, wonderful bureaucracies in intelligence and homeland security.  Not since the New Deal or the Great Society has the government been as big and as powerful as it is today and we can thank the small government Republicans for it. When the economy collapsed and the credit markets dried up it was the Republicans who bailed out the top companies like AIG and created the TARP program to buy up bad debt, which eventually did not happen as the TARP money went to banks in an effort to unfreeze the credit markets.  The economy has plummeted farther since. It is a very convenient time for Republicans to have their "come to Jesus" moment just when the nation, the American people, and an extremely popular president need their cooperation. 

I will not get into arguments on who is at fault for the economic mess that we are now in but the overall consensus is that this was a long time coming, it will take years to recover, and there are no quick fixes. Generally speaking, no one knows what to do. But, just because no one is sure how to fix the problem doesn’t mean you should not address the problem. After the stock crash of 1929, Herbert Hoover decided not to use the government to intervene in the markets – possibly prolonging the Great Depression.  Even when Franklin Roosevelt used the government to put Americans back to work, the US did not return to full economic strength until after WWII. But, it was during the Great Depression that the government decided to rebuild and retool for the future. New roads and bridges were built, rubber and steel manufacturing were refitted, tanks and airplanes were built to defeat the Nazi’s and Japanese, and this was all done to focus America in the direction of future domination in the market place and as a superpower.  President Obama has learned this history lesson well.  Neither he, nor anyone else knows what will happen to the economy any time soon but the President is planning for the future. A full one third of the stimulus money is going to tax incentives for small business, the rest is going toward stabilizing the housing market, loans for businesses, easing the foreclosure status for homes and families in dire economic straits, refocusing on jobs in education, rebuilding infrastructure, and creating new jobs in the emerging green market economy. The President is using the current crisis to rebuild America for future success in the market, in infrastructure, climate change, health care, and education. I don’t think the Republicans have given sufficient answers on not wanting to be involved or coming up with suitable alternatives for the current crisis. The United States has over 300 million people living within its borders and the numbers keep rising. The cost of health care, education, social security, and living expenses will only continue to climb toward astronomical heights. Government will not get smaller… it can only be contained to a certain extent. We, as a nation, need to refocus on the future and the role government will play in the lives of individuals. No longer is it acceptable to claim that government should not have a significant role in the lives of its citizens… we, the people, need the government now more than ever.

For an interesting read, check out this great article in the New York Times from Paul Krugman on the coming federal budget. In the new budget, the President has allocated 634 billion over the next decade for health care reform and is projecting 645 billion in revenue sales from emission allowances – paying down the debt and focusing our commitments to health care and climate change.