Second Stimulus

This is great news!

The Democrats in Congress need to follow this up with some fierce public support!

I swear they read our blogs, Bob. I just posted a on Friday that we need another stimulus and looky here.

It would have to be done before January. Its hard to see anything at all being done after the Democratic majority shrinks from a shakey 60 down to a 54 or 55.

Tax cuts – Bush vs Obama…The Bush Tax plan vs the Obama tax plan:http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/08/ezra-klein-the-bush-tax-plan-vs-the-obama-tax-plan-in-one-chart.html

This is good. Hopefully, Tyson is a harbinger of Obama’s decision to enact another stimulus.

Expect more.

I wonder if in that ERAB Report, there was anything about what a colossal blunder Free Trade was.Or are Democrats and republicans still not willing to MAN UP and admit it was a mistake to ENCOURAGE American companies to export American jobs and wealth to foreigners?Yup. I’m sure throwing another $1 Trillion at the Depression will solve everything. Forget the fact that more than six million jobs have been shipped over seas, and god only knows how many countless others were created there when they should have been created here. But let’s not talk about that. Let’s ignore it until America is riding the 25% unemployment wave to anarchy.You know, another stimulus probably is needed, but if you think $1 Trillion is going to solve a systematic attack on the Middle Class by both parties, guess again.What are you going to do, make everyone a government employee?This gets solved when Democrats and Republican stand up and say, “You know, that Free Trade thing? Yeah, that was a BAD idea…and we’re repealing every agreement we made.”Show me the Democrat or Republican with the balls to admit it was a mistake. I’m pretty sure one doesn’t exist, since there is no evidence of such a creature.What was your party thinking, Bob?What were they thinking when we warned them what would happen and you went ahead and did it anyway? What were you thinking when you gave American Middle class jobs to foreigners? Your party and theirs owes America an explanation.Are we ever going to get one?

sorry about that nasty rant. I’m just fed up with the fucking excuses America is getting from Democrats and Repubs. We deserve better.

I’m in “Bitter/Bitch, Party of one” mood this week, so I’m going to go with thinking this is a trial balloon. Next week, the Right could go into spastic overdrive at the idea of another stimulus. The Republicans are busy perfecting the “The stimulus didn’t create any jobs” meme so they’d be able to run with “the first one didn’t work, now Barack bin Lad– errr, I mean, Obama, wants to do another one.”Wait until tomorrow. I’m willing to guess at least two, maybe three, White House officials back pedal on the idea of a second stimulus. It’ll be characterized as “one of the many approaches we’re considering, including extending the Bush era tax cuts.” (Sorry, couldn’t pass that opportunity up.)

I’ll go along with another stimulus for the short term, but what we really effing need is a long term energy independence policy. And, YES, it will cost money – tax money – because we can’t depend on private enterprise to do it!Screw global warming for the sake of this argument, just consider how many US dollars go to foreign oil producers. What would those same $$$$ do here?We need to pursue a new national energy independence policy in the same way Eisenhower went for a national “interstate” highway system. And, yes, sending less US dollars to foreign oil producers is a national security issue just like building the interstate was!I don’t care what the fuck it costs!

PPP – You’re right about Free-Trade, but I think your anger is somewhat misplaced.You would be better served educating people why free-trade is so terrible, rather than blaming people who probably werent even politically aware back in 1994. Hell, I was 10 years old. Bob was 23 so maybe you can blame him!Obama won most of the youth vote. The youth vote might not even know that free-trade is the entity that is fucking them over. 20 or 30% of the people who voted for Obama were 8 to 12 years old when NAFTA was signed.Get my point?I know all of the reasons free-trade is bad, but I also dont see that genie being stuffed back in the bottle. It is structured into the whole economy. If you ended it tomorow, the economy would literlly take a dump. It would have to be repealed over several years, maybe a decade.Dont get me wrong. I’d love to see free-trade end, but you have to understand its a delicate situation.Whats that joke.. whats the difference between a lightbulb and a pregnant woman? you can unscrew the lightbulb.How can we unscrew free-trade?

@Nano: uhm, this wasn’t an interview. I think the admin thought this out and pre-planned this article to appear on a certain date. It looks like they took the time to do some research, put some numbers together, etc. etc. I do not think they are going to walk it back. The right bitching is as predictable as the sun rising. Obama picks his fights and apparently he’s ready to butt heads with some folks.

Also, this may be a way to lure hesitant Dems on to some kind of plan.

PPP”your” party.You can can that crap, PPP. As independents, YOUR party has voted on both sides of the aisle, amd you have voted for both repubs and dems.Ashby, good points.NAFTA sucks. But they aren’t going to touch it in the near future, so we might as well put our energy in to something doable. Like another stimulus.

The psychology of one measurement of a nation’s situation is incredible. GDP – some are acting as if the bloody sky is falling and will stop at nothing to re-inflate the bubble – as if this is the long-term answer; and it seems the panic is over some kind of massive reduction in economic activity, when its a few percent. Recently saw an interesting TED talk where some nation’s are measuring GDH – gross domestic happiness – of course, I don’t see that happening anytime soon over here. Some business leaders have told me they use the psychology of a downturn to lay-off labor, when it actually is not critical to their health fundamentally – but its good for their options – say, for example FedEx – layoffs, pay cuts – still big profits. This financial system is set up to be gamed – and gamed it is…

JM,here’s how you get around “repealing” Free Trade; you do what EVERY politician running for office in the last fifteen years has promised. You stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship American jobs overseas, and you start taxing them on income earned overseas regardless of whether that money is held here or there. Also, you jack that tax rate up, and you tax the crap out of goods made by American companies overseas that are shipped here.It’s that or the coming massive deflation. If we hit massive deflation, it won’t matter where products are made, and global equality will have been achieved through the pain of most Americans.JM, you need to understand that this isn’t a maybe thing. Many economists are already talking about deflation as a real possibility. Once it starts, it’s awfully hard to reverse it. In fact, in thie history of Capitalism, I can’t find example where it was ever reversed without hitting bottom across the entire economic spectrum.That’s not something any of us want to contemplate, but in this day and age, and especially with how impatient Americans are today, it could literally mean the break down of our social, economic, and political system.We’re not our great grandparents. We won’t take bread lines and hopelessness lying down.So that’s the challenge. Unfortunately, our Washington officials either don’t get it, or are too steeped in anecdotal partisan economic theory to change course.