An Old Kind of Politics: House Republicans blocking stimulus

It's not that clear cut. If they believe the economy is headed off a cliff without a stimulus (an open question), then not passing it would be more costly to the deficit than passing it.

That said, I'm not a big fan of this bill. It seems to be much less stimulative than it should be.

 

Dream on. Our banking system is insolvent and we're hemmoraghing jobs and the efects are global. The current discussion is another $2 trillion for banks as a starter.

We're not pulling out of this anytime soon and it will get worse. There is simply nothing to take the place of the wealth that was lost over the last two years. There will be additional stimulus efforts. You can bank on it. I don't particularly like it, but I'd much rather have Obama running it with at least an understanding of the long-term structural changes we need in our economy than the previous administration.

 

The new Republican mantra: Ideology or die!

Payback will be a b****.

 

Democrats: Why don't we dig a huge pit and throw all our money into it to stimulate the economy.

Republicans: um, no. that's a bad idea.

Democrats: you're against stimulating the economy!

 

We're currently suffering from the effects of 6-8 years of Republican economic stimulus. Historic economic collapse is the result.

 

Democrats: Why did you dig that big hole?

Repubs: Because we wanted to sell the dirt to our friends.

Dems: What do we do with it now?

Repubs: That's your problem.

Dems: But it's turning into a sinkhole that will destroy the neighborhood.

Repubs: Like we said, it's your problem now. By the way, why haven't you fixed it yet?

Dems: Well, it would be nice if we could get some help.

Repubs: We'll help you, but only if we can make the hole bigger.

Dems: Thanks, but we'll do it ourselves.

 

Actually the collapse coincided quite nicely with the Democratic control of Congress.

The primary driver of the collapse was two things:

1) The Fed (an independent body) leaving interest rates too low for too long, well into the economic recovery, which over-stimulated the economy. Monetary policy is far more meaningful as an economic stimulus than is spending.
2) Banks lending to bad credits -- much of this was the result of the Community Reinvestment Act that the Dems championed which forced banks to lend to bad urban, low-income credits.

Neither 1) nor 2) are Republican initiatives. Bush's stimulus worked very well actually, and brought the economy back from the grave after 9-11.

I wouldn't expect you, nor would I expect Obama voters (duh), to be able to understand this type of educated logic.

 

Corrected for accuracy.

 

The teejster thinks that a few working class brown people getting home loans caused a global economic meltdown. His economic analysis is as insightful as his political analyis was leading up to the 08 election.

 

I've been waiting for House Republicans to grow a pair. I'm just happy to see them stand for something, after what the hell they have been doing. Where were these guys when TARP was being passed?

Maybe they received the message this November.

 

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

I love how all bad news since the 2006 election is the fault of the Democratic Congress and all bad news between December 2000 and November 2006 is the fault of the Clinton administration. It's like the Bush administration and Repub control of Congress never existed. If you guys keep going this route, historians won't have the opportunity to polish W's legacy.

Way to live up to those calls for responsibility!

 

They love them some W, but now he's gone so they're free to rediscover their "principles."

 

The CRA was also key in increasing the number of predatory loans and if you change the context of "forced" to forced by the will of the market, which saw other banks making tons of (short term) cash in this new market then I think forced is a legit term.

 

Read a little further down on that wiki page then think about if you are the only bank in town not making tons of cash on predatory loans how quickly you would lose stockholders.

 

Refresh my memory people because It's been awhile.. But aren't these the same Republicans who blocked the last stimulus and the only way to approve it was with a lot of Pork Barrel projects.. $110 Billion of wooden arrow heads, rum tax breaks in some Caribbean island and something to do with race car tracks? How are any of those going to help the economy..