Tax Cuts verse Food StampsFollow

Like the war in Iraq?

Social Security and Medicare being the prime example here.

I'm excited that I'll still be paying for this when my estate taxes are calculated after I leave my estate to my children.

I don't even HAVE children yet.

Then why were the Republicans the ones that were stripping all the educational improvement provisions out of the bill, calling them pork?

Edit: Furthermore, having a hissy fit over the NEA getting $50 million, when I've been after a certain major theater in NYC to buy servers for at least two years, and they never have the operating budget to do so?


Edited, Feb 14th 2009 12:44pm by catwho

I was just thinking about this today, and it occurred to me that the success here isn't really the bill itself. When you look at the process here, a major legislation was introduced, debated, a compromise reached, and the whole thing passed in less than a month. Sure, there are some significant groups of people who disagree with a lot of the details of the package, but historically, it's the idea of trying to please everyone that has bogged down our legislative process and invariably ensured the failure of a number of good ideas. The success is the efficiency of the process, regardless of the magnitude or scale of the legislation.

Well then I suggest we fund a program to research and produce people that don't need shelter, heat, and food - problem solved.

That person who did the study must not shop anywhere that takes a lot of food stamps or lives in an area that does. You'd do far better subsidizing community college or tech school so people can create real wealth by moving up in life. Or vouchers for day care.

Food stamp reliance is a cancer for a community, especially since they can easily be abused. You'd be surprised how many people defraud the government that way. If we are going to bankrupt the usa over crap like this, at least make it something that works.

Paul Begala has an elegant solution to anyone of authority who thinks the stimulus is a waste: Lower the cost of the stimulus by refusing the money:I eagerly await hearing Mitch McConnell demand that Governor Beshear refuse to take certain monies for the state of Kentucky. Surely there's pork in there that can be cut out and the state of Kentucky can just refuse right? "Thanks but no thanks"? Anything that's not immediate short term stimulus? Lindsey Graham is from S. Carolina and he hated the bill. Shook it around in the air and yelled and everything. Between him and Governor Sandford, it's good to know that S. Carolina will be refusing money. Right?.... Right?

Ok, someone let me know when this happens!

Boehner advocated a "Tax cuts only" plan so I'm sure he's petitioning hard to refuse any spending in the 8th District of Ohio.

thats silly, because even if you do, what happens is you subsidize the people who take the money anyways with no benefit through income taxes and the various federal mandates that will come from this. Its not a win-lose thing, its a lose-lose thing. Its not like if you don't take anything you won't have to pay for it anyways.

Your constituents will feel the hit and get zero benefit from it. Some of the stimulus may be out of your control anyways as a federal program. You can't refuse food stamps.



thats not creating jobs though. Bush tried the short term stimulus thing, it didnt work: its impossible to create jobs through short term cash handouts. A better thing would be to subsidize low-cost preventitive health care by someone like *gasp* wal-mart, who could easily open walk-in medical centers in their locations and with an economy of scale, be able to keep the prices down.

That would create jobs and benefit the poor as well, and maybe even drive down the cost of care by ensuring people can get regular checkups and head off advanced illness, which is prohibitively costly if not treated early. Also fund with that inexpensive training to become physicians assistants or lpn to staff centers like this, and you make a way for people to lift themselves out of poverty too.

If obama would do things like that, he'd see much more people behind him, but as it is, it looks to me his own party is steamrollering him on this stimulus. Not a good sign.

thats silly, because even if you do, what happens is you subsidize the people who take the money anyways with no benefit through income taxes and the various federal mandates that will come from this.

Wrong. There's no added benefit to people receiving funds who think it's a bad idea.

In point of fact the economic reality is that IT DOES NOT MATTER AT ALL, *****AT ALL***** what the money is spent on, so long as it is spent and is spent domestically. Spending 1 Trillion on elephant **** disposal is identical in terms of economic stimulus to carefully allocating the money to specific "worthy" causes. All that really matters is that the money is spent, and not saved. This is why tax cuts aren't a great idea, because it's virtually impossible 100% of their value will be returned quickly to the economy as demand, and realistically, the percentage is closer to 40%. There is zero, and I do mean zero, serious debate that cutting the capital gains tax to zero tomorrow would be less of a stimulus to the economy than 500 billion in direct spending. Suckers need to move past this ******** moral hazard worry. It just doesn't matter. Spend a trillion on church construction, works for me. The salient point is if government is going to work to prevent a prolonged recession, it's going to just have to spend a great deal of money *very likely poorly*. While this doesn't seem to phase anyone when the Fed uses it's balance sheet to basically underwrite quasi-worthless debt, or Treasury hands money without conditions to giant merchant banks, there's a big fear that someone else might be getting over on the system while I'm NOT!!!!one!!11!eleven!! when it comes to spending on middle class jobs. I don't own a bank, who cares if they get more money than was spent on World War 1 with the stroke of a pen. If Vinny next door gets a union job building bridges for $40 an hour and I get laid off, there is great unfairness in the world!!1

Grow the **** up.