Stimulation

For all you ill-informed citizens who think that the New Deal didn't save us from the last time Republican policies had been carried out for too long, listen up.

I know, you like to say that World War II brought us back from the brink of disaster. And y'know what? You're actually right about that. It was that great war that pulled us up out of the depths of Republican depravity.

But those nay-sayers who like to trash Roosevelt while making the case that President Obama's plans won't get us out of the mess they got us into are missing one teeny-tiny little point. Just what was it about World War II that allowed us to recover economically?

World War II was one gigantic stimulus plan. If there hadn't been a Pearl Harbor, if Hitler hadn't tried to take over Europe, Roosevelt's New Deal would have continued -- and succeeded as well as the war did -- because we pumped money into the economy and put people to work.

And while we're at it, it was all a little bit of socialism, that word that so terrifies the unwashed masses and their well-heeled masters in Washington and on the airwaves. Columnist Don Williams:

Face it. Nothing is more socialistic than the military culture, where you have men and women living in government housing, driving government jeeps, tanks, planes and boats, shooting government guns, eating government food, wearing government clothing and partaking of government healthcare. Everyone’s pay falls within well-defined boundaries, so the staggering inequities in pay — the kind dragged into the light by so many Wall Street scandals -- scarcely exist in the military.

Privates and generals make a guaranteed annual income and salaries are capped by the government. Everyone who signs up for service is treated to goodies at taxpayer expense for the rest of their lives. Government counseling, medical care, pensions, disability payments, education and so on are provided for by a grateful public all too willing to be taxed in order to support the troops.

...

I bring this up not to advocate turning America into a military welfare state, but just for clarity’s sake. The chief point is that anyone who says Roosevelt’s big-spending policies didn’t end the Great Depression has no leg to stand on, not even one of those expensive titanium legs our government hires doctors to provide wounded troopers. Roosevelt spent more, not less, after the war started.

So whether it was the New Deal or World War II that ended the Great Depression, the chief engine of change was a massive infusion of federal dollars into the American and global economy for more than a decade. It’s a transfer on the order of what Obama intends as he retools the grid, healthcare, education and transportation infrastructure.

To those who say it can’t work, I have two words.

Prove it.

I have two other words. Make that four: Shut the fuck up. You so clearly don't know what you're talking about. Stop saying we can't spend our way out of this recession/depression/whatever it is, because it's only way we're going to get out of it.

And hopefully, we can do it without the "benefit" of spreading our ridiculous and illegal wars any further than they've already spread, because that was one damned bloody and deadly way to jump-start the economy.

So far, though, Bush's wars haven't done much with the economy except drain it, and that may have been his point all along.

But we do know this for sure: The "loyal" opposition is decidedly disloyal, now trying to hedge their treason by saying they don't want the president's policies to succeed instead of saying they don't want him to succeed. It's the same damn thing. Treason.

They only want to keep doing what they've been doing for the past 30 years, no matter how much Mitch McConnell says the GOP can get better now without that GW albatross around their necks.

Well, Mitch, old buddy, why didn't you act like he was a fucking albatross during those eight years you marched in lockstep with him on every damn thing he wanted done?

Oh, that's right. Because he's only an albatross now that you've finally figured out the American people hate him and what he stands for, and you need to do something to try to persuade us that you're really different.

But that's a big, fat lie, Mitch. Just like the one about how the New Deal didn't get us out of the Great Depression.



News Writer
AWOP Political Contributing Editor
Author of Stop the Press Blog

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Democrats Are Stupid Too

Gawd, what a moron. And to think Chris Dodd was my original choice in the Democratic primary.

The Connecticut senator, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, admitted Wednesday that, yes, he did, in fact, have something to do with language inserted in last month's stimulus bill that effectively exempted AIG's bonuses from limitations. This after he flatly denied it on Tuesday.

But CNN caught him in the lie, getting a Treasury Department official to say they'd wanted the change made to an amendment being added to the bill in conference, and Dodd's committee made it happen.

But before we condemn Dodd for that -- and before we condemn the Treasury for throwing Dodd under the bus -- let's look at what actually happened.

First, let's be fair -- Dodd didn't say that he personally put the language in. He said -- and it's obviously true when you follow the bill's movements through Congress -- that the language was inserted during the reconciliation process after discussions between his staff and Treasury staff.

See, back in February, Dodd wanted to put tight restrictions on bonuses paid out by companies that got TARP money. That's what the amendment in question actually did, adding those restrictions to the stimulus bill. It was Dodd's amendment. But then Treasury came in and said, y'know, we don't think this is a good idea because these bonuses are contractual, and we might get hit with some nasty lawsuits.

Dodd decided to go ahead and make the change that Treasury wanted, because, he said, he feared if he didn't, there'd be no restrictions at all on bonuses. Both Dodd and the Treasury official who spoke with CNN say precisely the same thing: Treasury thought Dodd's amendment was too strict because of the lawsuits and pressured him to change it. He did. End of story.

And the date specific in the bill that some folks are pointing to, saying it proves it was aimed at OKing AIG's bonuses? That just happened to be the date the conference committee met to hammer out a final version of the bill.

Dodd's original amendment, by the way, had no such date in it.

Keep in mind, of course, that the original TARP bill -- the one that GW and his boys created -- contained absolutely no restrictions on compensation of any kind. Also keep in mind that the very people who are now setting fire to Dodd and the Democrats for creating a loophole in the amendment are the same people who argued against any limitation on compensation at all.

That would be the Republicans.

Pretty hypocritical, dontcha think? Fight tooth and nail to prevent any compensation limits and then come back and slam the guy who put some in for not putting enough in. They're hoping we forget that earlier part. My colleagues, if tonight is any indication, will. That means we're the ones who have to tell the truth.

And the truth is that Chris Dodd fucking lied. He lied on Tuesday when he told CNN flatly that he had nothing to do with the change in his own amendment.

That's pretty fucking stupid. Honestly, trying to avoid lawsuits isn't a bad thing for an economy that's as screwed up as this one is right now. The Republicans keep whining that anything the president does that isn't directly connected to fixing their mess of the last 30 years is a distraction. I'd think that multi-million lawsuits would be a bigger distraction than, oh, say, making your Final Four predictions for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

But Dodd, damn him. He couldn't just tell the truth. He had to lie. And then when he gets caught in the lie, we find out that the truth actually makes sense, only now it sounds suspicious because the moron lied to begin with.

Not to mention that it gives the nutzoid Republicans ammunition to use against the administration, even if it is wet powder. The veracity of their claims never seems to matter to them, or their even crazier followers.

What is it with politicians? Are they all perpetually stuck at 7 years old? "Little Chris, did you break that glass?" "No, mommy, I didn't." "But Chris, you were the only one here." "I didn't do it."

Stupid, stupid, stupid. And because of Dodd's stupidity, my dear, dear colleagues will never tell the story right. They'll focus on Dodd's lie. They'll say that Dodd inserted the language that gave AIG an out. They might say that the administration wanted it that way, but they'll downplay it. They won't say that Dodd had pushed to stop all such bonuses.

And they won't say that the compromise language that Dodd secured included a clause that is the very thing Treasury is now using to try to get back at least some of the bonus money: The contracts can be violated if it's in the "national interest."

I'd have to say that, yes, this would be "in the national interest".

But we're not going to be talking about that. We're going to be talking about Chris Dodd's lie. Idiot.

News Writer
AWOP Political Contributing Editor
Author of Stop the Press Blog

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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