bitterlyclingin
Silver Member
- Aug 4, 2011
- 3,122
- 425
- 98
But there was one clear effect of the shock and awe $500 billion TARP bailout, which passed Congress in haste and without extended deliberation: it sent a signal to liberals that it was possible to borrow and spend much larger amounts of money than ever thought possible. So after the election, Obama and the new, hitherto spending-deprived Democratic Congress (which had been out of power for most of the previous decade), presented with a crisis too good to waste, blew out all the doors with the $900 billion stimulus, which, as has been pointed out, had as much to do with politicsservicing liberal interest groupsas it did reviving the economy. And then added Obamacare, another trillion-dollar entitlement, on top of it.
Now that they are in political trouble, Democrats may wail about the lack of Republican compromise in either the stimulus or Obamacare, but I think Democrats were actually pleased to pass both on party-line votes. Rememberthey thought Obama was FDR II, and that the stimulus and Obamacare were New Deal II. (Theyre partly right: just as the New Deal didnt work to end the Great Depression, the stimulus didnt work to revive our economy. Shovel-ready and green jobs (or green jobs for janitors as my smart environmentalist friends like to observe) were the economic policy equivalent of paying farmers to destroy crops back in the 1930s when people were going hungrya measure that destroyed capital and rewarded unproductive activity.) They thought their program would be politically popular and add to their political strength. They couldnt believe it when what happened was the Tea Party
Inflection Points and the New Rules of Fiscal Politics | Power Line
Now that they are in political trouble, Democrats may wail about the lack of Republican compromise in either the stimulus or Obamacare, but I think Democrats were actually pleased to pass both on party-line votes. Rememberthey thought Obama was FDR II, and that the stimulus and Obamacare were New Deal II. (Theyre partly right: just as the New Deal didnt work to end the Great Depression, the stimulus didnt work to revive our economy. Shovel-ready and green jobs (or green jobs for janitors as my smart environmentalist friends like to observe) were the economic policy equivalent of paying farmers to destroy crops back in the 1930s when people were going hungrya measure that destroyed capital and rewarded unproductive activity.) They thought their program would be politically popular and add to their political strength. They couldnt believe it when what happened was the Tea Party
Inflection Points and the New Rules of Fiscal Politics | Power Line