tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806285951476851034.post3454691849648466973..comments2023-04-06T03:58:20.482-04:00Comments on The Everyday People Project: Why I Love Rachel MaddowSusanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07350532214928944088noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806285951476851034.post-87880174598371151312009-02-25T22:47:00.000-05:002009-02-25T22:47:00.000-05:00This is the part that heartens me. Despite the fa...This is the part that heartens me. Despite the fact that it seems like we're on opposites sides of the ideological fence, we agree on some points.<BR/>Barney Frank and his ilk? Bah. I agree completely.<BR/>But what bothers me is the "tax cut" argument when there is consensus among economists that a tax cut is the least effective means of stimulating the economy.<BR/>Food stamps, amazingly, offer the best bang for the buck. Infrastructure spending returns far more. I hate taxes like poison, but a tax cut apparently doesn't do the job.<BR/>Can business do this better than government? Theoretically, yes.<BR/>But I'm afraid big business, corporate America has proven it's as rotten as government.<BR/>I do have faith in people, especially small business owners.<BR/>I have little in government and none in corporate America as a general rule.<BR/>So if I'm offered the Democratic choice of an infusion of money into projects that will generate jobs or the Republican choice of handouts to large corporations which are proving themselves to be completely tone deaf, I'll go for the projects.<BR/>At least with government, you can vote them out. We have no say in who runs corporate America.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07350532214928944088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806285951476851034.post-43217136727976406892009-02-25T16:28:00.000-05:002009-02-25T16:28:00.000-05:00"FDR's conviction was that you can't sit back and ..."FDR's conviction was that you can't sit back and watch people drown. You try something." <BR/><BR/>I'm not arguing that you don't try "something". I think what conservatives are suggesting is that you try things with a greater track record of success than the dismal "success" of the New Deal. I'm thinking of things like targetted tax cuts (even a short-term suspension of the capital gains tax), dispensing with sclerotic, pointless, inefficient regulations, trying personal and business incentives of various sorts.<BR/><BR/>I work for the government. It is inefficient as hell. To imagine that Barney Frank and the group of bloated gas-bags in Washington are better able to figure out how to run businesses than people whose livelihoods are dependent on getting it right just doesn't make any sense to me. <BR/><BR/>Obama believes that the government is the answer. I think history proves exactly the opposite.<BR/><BR/>FDR prolonged a bad recession and turned it into a GREAT Depression. Obama shouldn't be allowed to repeat the mistake. <BR/><BR/>People's lives and futures are on the line. It is no time to ignore the lessons of the past, but to learn from them.Nocomme1https://www.blogger.com/profile/07854461583080704015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806285951476851034.post-69312921072372207522009-02-25T16:00:00.000-05:002009-02-25T16:00:00.000-05:00I would never argue without checking my facts, so ...I would never argue without checking my facts, so I checked. You've got an absolute point, which even the experts on FDR would concede. The New Deal didn't end the Depression - a war did. But if you look at the statistics, there's definite improvement, though certainly not the joyful recovery one might hope for. But three, or even one percent of the population is a lot of people who were able to go back to work.<BR/>http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1528.html<BR/>FDR's conviction was that you can't sit back and watch people drown. You try something. You try anything. And some of it works. If it doesn't, you try something else.<BR/>If we do nothing, the top 1% that holds more wealth than the entire bottom 90% will be okay. But many, many of the rest of us will not.<BR/>I'd rather thrown out some lifejackets now and work on paying for them then just yell, "Swim!"Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07350532214928944088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806285951476851034.post-38656776616875626162009-02-25T12:56:00.000-05:002009-02-25T12:56:00.000-05:00While I didn't see Maddow's exposition I am aware ...While I didn't see Maddow's exposition I am aware of what Robert Morgenthau, Jr., FDR's Treasury Secretary said about the effectiveness of the New Deal (the model for Obama's current "stimulus"), in 1939, ten years after the depression began:<BR/><BR/>“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong…somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises…I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…And an enormous debt to boot!”<BR/><BR/>Maddow has her charts. Morgenthau had his experience. Maybe I'm crazy but Morgenthau strikes me as being a tad more credible than Maddow.<BR/><BR/>(Also, for more on the folly of the New Deal, check out Amity Shlae's highly regarded book, The Forgotten Man.)Nocomme1https://www.blogger.com/profile/07854461583080704015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8806285951476851034.post-7290663041330575462009-02-07T19:11:00.000-05:002009-02-07T19:11:00.000-05:00Here, here!Here, here!Jennifer Hofmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14388411095335518123noreply@blogger.com