This helps. Probably not enough… Hold on to your wallets - the current economic crisis is just going to gather speed under McCain. Two side notes — 1) It’s good to see the kind of religion where the parishioners aren’t afraid to call their preachers out for nonsense. 2) Chuck B. - I feel kind of vindicated… unless you would characterize B.O.’s “tut-tutting” of Wright to represent naivite on the part of that black man…
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RWHoly crap, I may have to revisit my contention that Obama will defeat McCain.
smijerWould McCain’s budget push forward a recession in your view?
McCain is a conservative. His view, according to conservative ideology, is that the federal government intervenes as little as possible and lets the markets sort it all out. In a time of recession - when the markets lack the wherewithal to sort it all out, that equals more recession.
McCain has promised to continue the economics of GWB. McCain has said he doesn’t know that much about the economy. McCain has made it clear that he is not hesitant to continue the aggressive foreign policy that leads to expensive ass new wars and won’t consider getting us out of the current expensive ass war.
McCain favors a stripped down “stimulus package” that will give $200 checks to a bunch of people and do little else. He won’t extend VA benefits. He won’t extend unemployment benefits to help the currently jobless and those becoming jobless stay on their feet long enough to regain meaningful employment. He won’t invest heavily (with taxpayer money) in green business to create a new (green) sector that can lead development and bring competitiveness back to the U.S. market. He won’t add labor, environmental, and safety provisions to our trade deals to help us compete fairly with imported goods and ameliorate overseas abuses. He will try to regulate the credit horse that is already out of the barn as though it is still inside - as little as possible.
If we are coasting along, making easy money, then you can get by - at least over the short-term - by doing nothing. When you are sliding down-hill fast, then you have to do something. And that doesn’t mean RW or smijer working an extra hour a day to try to fix the problem from our cubicles. It means the society as a whole - the only unifying force for which is the Fed.
I’m part of the way with you on spending money for health care… I don’t know if we can afford it now. But I do know the system is broken and the free market is allowing me to spend more each year for less benefit and less quality. Will it hurt the economy to take the tax breaks Bush gave those making over $250,000 per year and put it toward fixing that system? I don’t know. I’m sure there is the possibility of it. On the other hand, it may be that when my premium stabilize, I’ll find myself and those like me putting more $$ into the economy than the millionaires would have with their tax breaks. I guess it sounds like I’m saying that it’s a foregone conclusion that we would… but really, I just don’t know. Honestly, I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried about whether I’ll be able to find a job if my company downsizes yet again… It has done so 4 times - all of them since Bush took office. My business is *very* sensitve to the economy. It’s not a field that does well during a recession - that’s my dad’s business. I see the effects of the economic slow-down - especially the housing crunch (laid at the feet of the unregulated credit industry - laid at the feet of an unregulating government) - daily. Hourly, even.
If the economy improves after 3 years of McCain, will I give him credit for being an economic genius? Quite possibly I will. I have no ill-will toward the man, and knowing what I know about liberalism, I no longer hold much animus toward certain forms of conservatism. I actually like many things about John McCain. I’m no economist, so I won’t be in much position to make a judgment on whether his policies helped turn us around. But if I don’t see strong evidence that some other factor played the big role, then I’ll at least give him the benefit of the doubt.
On the other hand, the only thing that I am convinced he will do differently than Bush is to make a sincere effort to reign in Congressional spending (and even then not by the preferred method of putting sunlight on the pork, but rather by making a token and ineffective effort to shut down “earmarks” - which are not inherently evil and are actually necessary, used properly, for our government to work - and by making real efforts to shut down spending on things like better police protection, better schools, better healthcare, etc…). I think it will do some good to reign in that spending (more so if it is done wisely than in the Conservative tradition)… but it is extremely doubtful that such efforts will come close to solving the types of problems we are experiencing now. In short, I don’t expect to have to eat any crow after 3 years of a McCain presidency.
And yeah– I do think the government has a lot to do with the economy. I doubt, if the economy didn’t depend so strongly on it, that the idea of “government” would have ever even occurred to the human species. If you look at the historical basis of government, it has always had a large component for protecting and managing an economy of some sort. That goes back to Hammurabi & further.
So.. there… that’s the short answer. Do you want the long one?
smijerHoly crap, I may have to revisit my contention that Obama will defeat McCain.
I still feel pretty good about my contrary contention. Hey… while I’m applying alliteration, why don’t you gain yourself a a groovy gravatar?
Buck“Whitey had it coming” and “blowback” are basically the same terms. Different ways of saying the same things.
The CIA uses terms like “blowback” and are therefore politically correct.
I know the comments above are best suited for a post or two below this one but I wanted to say it anyway.
Is the gov’t that powerful?
Know of anything more powerful? The will of the people perhaps?
One thing that could be considered more powerful are the laws governing economics. When you spend eight years spending money with reckless abandon, borrowing money with reckless abandon and printing money with reckless abandon it will come back and bite you on the ass eventually.
I think the economic crisis will worsen under Dems or Republicans. Call it, “chickens coming home to roost!”
Maybe “day of reckoning” is more PC.
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Here’s where a debate on ISSUES can be started. Exactly how do you think that a recession (or, a boom) can be exacerbated based on what McCain has proposed? Or how can Obama make things better based on what he’s proposed? Granted: I realize that you LIKE and think that ‘your side’s ideas’ are (a) better; (b) fairer; (c) what should be done. I think the same about my side. I’m seeking insight on how McCain’s economic policies (from what I can gather, it includes lowering overall spending from the out-of-control Bush era & a clampdown on earmarks, plus continuing tax cuts & the war) would be different enough to make 1/1000th of a difference in the GDP over what Obama’s proposals are (a lot more spending, higher taxes, a bit less on the war years down the road - anyone who thinks we’ll be out in less than 3 years….even 50% of the way out, is lying)? Would McCain’s budget push forward a recession in your view? Keeping in mind that the same was said about Bush (wrong), Clinton (wrong), Reagan (wrong) but was not said about Bush 41’s tax hikes (wrong)?
I guess what I’m trying to say is: do you think that the executive branch has that much control over the GDP of the USA? And people who don’t succeed economically can blame the president of the United States? If they do better under McCain & the economy turns around in time for his proposals, should he get the credit? Should Bush get the credit for the recent boom?
Is the gov’t that powerful?