URLs du Jour

2009-02-05

  • President Obama had an op-ed in today's Washington Post. Key para:

    Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.

    Apparently, the idea is to convince us that without action the economy will irreversibly spiral down, down, down until we're just all wandering homeless and naked across the landscape.

    To put it mildly, this is irresponsible fearmongering bullshit.

    (The MinuteMan has useful comments on another paragraph from the op-ed. Captain Ed has a fuller analysis. I believe a fair summary of both is: yeah, it's BS.)

  • A saner view of the "stimulus" package is provided by the Congressional Budget Office (at the request of our short-timer Senator Judd Gregg), as reported by the Washington Times:

    CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

    Roll that around your brain awhile until it sticks: The CBO says GDP would be better in the long run if the government does nothing.

  • At the Technology Liberation Front, Jim Harper notes the administration's promise on the White House's Five Day Review page:

    The Obama-Biden Administration is committed to bringing new levels of openness, transparency, and participation to our government. That's why the President has pledged to post all nonemergency bills that come before his desk on WhiteHouse.gov for five days, where members of the public will be able to read, review, and comment before he takes any action on them.

    Jim has the poor manners to point out that President Obama yesterday signed the SCHIP legislation 3 hours after it was passed by Congress. (He also has a screen grab of the Five Day Review page because he figures that the White House might soon view it as an embarrassment to be memory-holed. Jim, where's your trust?)

    Politico also has the story, and in a sign of the "openness, transparency, and participation" we'll probably come to expect, they report:

    A White House spokesman refused to comment on the matter.

    (Oh, yeah, SCHIP. Read Kip Esquire on SCHIP. But "we" elected Democrats, so what did "we" think was going to happen?)

  • At Where's the Change, daveg has an excellent suggestion for some minor civil disobedience. Specifically, on every Geithner-signed bill that comes into your possession:

    [Tax Cheat]

    Remember, kids: dissent is the highest form of patriotism!


Last Modified 2012-10-08 7:47 PM EDT