December 01, 2003


Even in Taipei, they know

That President Chump-Change is an idiot. The massively transparent "stimulus" has some historical precedents, most notably what happened under the man who seems to be the hero and inspiration for most of the 1600 Crew, Tricky Dick.

To win re-election in 1972, Nixon ramped up federal spending and took other actions to juice the economy and financial markets, including imposing wage and price controls to combat inflation.

Nixon won in a landslide. But the economy soon collapsed in a harsh recession.

Inflation is not among Bush's problems. But artificial stimulation of the economy usually backfires.

"There is enormous stimulus in the system," says Robert Rubin, who was President Bill Clinton's treasury secretary. He cites the Bush tax cuts, mushrooming federal deficit, heavy spending on defense and the current low-interest rate environment.

"We have created a horrendous fiscal mess for ourselves," Rubin said.

Deficit spending can help revive a stagnant economy and help create jobs -- currently Bush's biggest problem.

Yup, I remember those days, Nixon sent us there, left if for Ford and Carter, then Reagan sent us back to a Poppy Recession. Fiscally responsible republicans...truly an oxymoron.

posted by Jo Fish on 12.01.03 at 12:06 AM





Comments:

Billmon over at Whiskey Bar had a post on just this not a few months back.

 posted by: VJ on 12.01.03 at 04:09 AM [permalink]

It's brilliant, actually. Spend like drunken sailors when you're in office, then let the Democrats clean up the mess once things start to fall apart. Wuya has just taken it one step further -- Reagan still had some shreds of fiscal responsibility about him, as did bush 41.

Good times roll when the Republicans are in office, then those idiot Dems come in and take your money!

 posted by: Invigilator on 12.01.03 at 08:58 PM [permalink]

"Rubin, Rubin, I've been thinking,
What a great world this would be
If only Bill Clinton could come back
To relieve our misery."

Shag from Brookline

 posted by: on 12.02.03 at 08:15 AM [permalink]

Are you so obtuse as to assume that tax cuts do not spur spending? What do most Americans do when they get a windfall of cash? Save it? That'll be the day! No, they blow that wad faster than a democrat with an intern. Articial stimulation of the economy backfiring? Not going to happen. Have you seen the news lately? The blatantly leftist media is even admitting the GDP leaped this quarter. More production=more jobs. More jobs=more spending.
Of course, there will be a downturn one day, that's economics. But to insinuate that giving the American people a tax break is going to send us back to the tar-paper shanties of the Hooverville Days is ludicrous and half-baked.

I also find it amusing that you have glossed over the nearly-unchecked spending of a Democrat-heavy Congress under Reagan. Interesting, too, is the fact that Democrats ignore the current trend, under Bush, of increased spending on social programs--the pride of Liberal Democrats.

And in the event that you think I'm just another fat-cat Republican...I'm an enlisted man in the Coast Guard, and I'm living well-enough on my military salary here in DC, one of the most expensive cities in the USA.

Fiscally-responsible Republicans? Yes, they are. God bless the GOP.

 posted by: navy vet on 12.05.03 at 09:54 AM [permalink]


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