One Year After the Government Stimulus
Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, or the stimulus bill, passing into law. While the debate over its success has been focused on whether or not it is stimulating the economy and on various questionable uses of funds, in my estimation this legislation is accomplishing exactly what it was intended to accomplish – grow the government.
Those of us concerned about the ever-increasing level of government debt gasped at the astonishing $787 billion cost estimates for this bill. True to form it has actually cost 10 percent more at $862 billion. We heard over and over that government could not sit around and do nothing while people lost their jobs and houses. The administration claimed that unemployment would not go above 8 percent if the stimulus bill passed. Now, a year later, the government estimates that unemployment is over 10 percent. The real number is closer to 20 percent. It appears that those promises were total fabrications in order to close the deal.
In any case, the American people know that more government spending obviously equals more government. If the goal was to strengthen the private sector, Congress would have allowed businesses and individuals to keep more of their own money through meaningful tax cuts. Outrageously, the administration claims that they did “cut taxes” by reducing withholding, and that they have stimulated the private economy by increasing the amount of money in every worker’s paycheck. What they fail to mention is they did not change the total amount of taxes due. This means that all that money not withheld from paychecks will add up to a big unpleasant surprise when returns are filed this year. Many tax preparers are already seeing shocked taxpayers having to come up with big checks to the government when they normally expect a refund. Stimulus, indeed!
The administration also claims that thousands of jobs have been created or saved by this massive spending bill, but these are just more government jobs, and counterproductive in the long run. Funding for the public sector necessarily comes at the expense of an overtaxed private economy. But, it makes sense that government would seek to expand its payroll since every new bureaucrat becomes a likely advocate for big government, when an increasing number of Americans are demanding the opposite. But the more the burden, the closer the government parasite comes to killing its host.
Rather than learning the lessons of the past year, the administration is moving full-speed ahead to do even more economic damage. With the stimulus bill set as a precedent and victory declared, another “jobs” bill is in the works. And, in order to address the unavoidable issues of our massive deficit, the administration has named a bi-partisan commission to find ways to decrease it. Tax increases on the middle class are notoriously back “on the table,” exposing that campaign promise as another instance of merely saying what the people wanted to hear. If the obvious solution to our spending problems was seriously put forth, that is, getting back to the constitutional limitations of government, I would be shocked. More likely, this will be a tactic to increase taxes and spending in a way that passes the political buck.
Regards,
Ron Paul, LewRockwell.com
for Whiskey & Gunpowder
March 1, 2010
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The Bread and Circuses will continue until the Fall.
No use in talking any more sense, the folks of self determination are grossly outnumbered by dependent clients and their keepers the bureaucrats.
The citiy minds have almost strangled the productive rural folk’s freedoms.
Il Duce, the Blue Lipped One will continue until war causes him to flee.
Survivalists, Preppers and religious zealots might stand a chance upwind and away.
Dr. Paul! Great to see you writing for W and G! What the stimulus bill did is like when you are camping and see someones campfire that is about to go out. Along comes a goverment man and says ” whats the problem”? The camper says “I am out of firewood, what will i do”. So the goverment man opens a can of gas and dumps it on the fire. Whoosh goes the campfire,the flames roaring to life,and the goverment man says “That solved the problem” and walkes away. But a few minutes later the campfire is embers again. What that camper needed was firewood to fix the problem, not a “flash in the pan”.
Unless the goverment prints real money,stops all this socialism,quits sending jobs overseas,and much more,all we Americans will get is just another “flash in the pan” and the “fire” will keep going out. The time is ripe for a real change.
Robert, your comment reminded me of the evening my 16-year-old daughter and I pulled into Albertson’s after an NRA class, that being the easiest way to teach her to shoot in Tacoma. As I turned the ignition off the night erupted into gunshots, shouting, running feet, and cursing. There we were in the middle of Masaad Ayoob’s “Come As You Are War!” I was carrying and Beauty had her Glock 9 in a bag at her feet, not being old enough to get a carry permit. We went into action like a well-oiled machine, without even a glance between us. We buried our heads in our laps and prayed! Hey, it wasn’t our war. I wasn’t about to get out, hold up one hand, brandish a gun in the other, and say firmly (like an irate Sunday School teacher) “Stop that, all of you! All right, which of you are the good guys and which are the bad?” A lady could get shot that way. Unless someone starts a war where we can tell George Washington from King George and opportunists you’ve got the right idea: stay out of it. I suggest we go down wind, though, so that we can smell possible bad guys and unwashed refugees first, instead of giving them the opportunity to catch a whiff of something they will want to take away from us. LBT
Dr. Paul, it is good to read your writing in Whiskey and Gunpowder. Please keep up the good work.
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LBT,
Upwind is refering to out of the prevailing wind currents. The cloud is in the form of nuclear or biochemical debris from the smoking remainder of cities bombed into oblivion. Of course, eventually it all gets around. But I do not want to be downwind of any of the likely targets (easily googelable) in a nuculear or biochemical gifting from one of our “friends.”
Chuckle…nice riposte, Robert. However, if one wishes to sniff out prey, opportunity, or danger, it is better to be DOWN wind. Being upwind is safety from nuclear fall out or if your neighbor starts a hog farm. The smells are more pungent down wind, but the opportunities are worth it in terms of reaction time and and being aware of what is going on that may have an impact on your life. Cordially, Linda