If I were a member of Congress and a Democrat, I would be ramming this down Bush’s throat:
The industry research firm Moody’s Economy.com tracked the potential impact of each stimulus dollar, looking at tax rebates, tax incentives for business, food stamps and expanding unemployment benefits.
The report found that “some provide a lot of bang for the buck to the economy. Others … don’t,” said economist Mark Zandi.
In findings echoed by other economists and studies, he said the study shows the fastest way to infuse money into the economy is through expanding the food-stamp program. For every dollar spent on that program $1.73 is generated throughout the economy, he said.
“If someone who is literally living paycheck to paycheck gets an extra dollar, it’s very likely that they will spend that dollar immediately on whatever they need – groceries, to pay the telephone bill, to pay the electric bill,” he said.
Of course, we all know that numbers have a left-wing bias.
And no, this does not change my mind- I still think any stimulus is pointless right now.
Robin G.
Interesting that the numbers are so good for food stamps. That’s impressive.
Scotty
That isn’t stimulating the economy. That’s called paying for necessities.
I thought left-wing bias only had a stranglehold on reality.
Face
Funded by Soros, founded by Obama, endorsed by Clinton, and employing Islamofacistlesboatheistrainbowflagwaving commies! Pure partisan mudslinging attention-grabbing MoveOn-type hatesite!
Wait, what? What’s that? It’s not? Well…..who cares about facts? They get in the way of good Republican bullet points.
rawshark
Yes which stimulates the economy.
Elvis Elvisberg
Why would reality impact the GOP’s position or the media’s reporting?
Pooh
This is pretty basic economics. Marginal propensity to consume (that is the amount of each additional dollar earned which is spent as opposed to saved) is inversely correlated with wealth, for pretty obvious reasons.
But empirically based economics has a left-wing bias. FACTINESS, bitches.
Zifnab
Everyone remember what absolutely, positively, definitely will not be in the economic stimulus package? Oh yeah, food stamps and unemployment benefits.
Sometimes I wonder if the Republicans are deliberately trying to fuck over the economy and the Democrats are just too stupid to stop them or if its the other way around.
Dennis - SGMM
Just what exactly, besides the National Debt, is going to be stimulated? People can no longer use their home equity as an ATM, wages have lost ground against inflation since 2000, and more money is in the hands of fewer people than at any other time in our history.
Both parties are engaging in the hallowed practice of buying votes. Those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder tend not to vote in large numbers so no stimulus for them.
cleek
and he’d cough up a lungful of: we aren’t going to pay people not to work!
Jake
I want to hear about the icky Democratic Nanny State and how that is worse than the dear Republican Daddy State that gives us a few bucks to go shopping when we’re feeling sad.
Who wants to bet the rebate “checks” arrive as a Capitol One Visa gift cards?
Damn it, when Bush says shop, he means shop!
Here here. Roughly on par with Brownie trying to shore up the levees with cans of hair mousse.
Haltelcere
Then reply with “But how about paying people to shop, which is what you, the economic genus that you are, recommend everyone do in a time of trouble”.
Heeeey, maybe if we also require feedback from the recipients, we could call it the “Mystery Shopper Stimulus Package” and do away with all the slum-handout-queen / too-fat-for-food-stamps dog whistles.
gypsy howell
Ahhh hell, why don’t we just cut another check to Halliburton and be done with it?
Common Sense
I’m glad you could make it. I think there still may be an open seat in the back.
Pooh
This is an argument against stimulus packages in general. Doesn’t change the fact that once you decide (rightly or wrongly) to do one, that there are better and worse ways of doing it. Naturally, the powers that be have chosen the worst way, because hey, they got theirs…
Ninerdave
Dodd and Hagel offer a true economic stimulus package:
Why Dodd never caught on, I don’t know.
T. Scheisskopf
Just in my little, rural county, homelessness, poverty and hunger are growing off the charts of anything the social services people have ever seen. Ever.
More money for food stamps and a raising of the non-eligibility threshold would not only be good for the economy, it would also have a positive impact on things like crime, suicides and attempts and other negative social effects. Oh, I didn’t mention that the incidents of suicides and attempts are up around here. Foreclosures, too.
That said, I have this nagging feeling that I just can’t shake the feeling that the phrase “culling the herd” has been used more than once in Dear Leader’s Imperial Palace.
The Moar You Know
Ninerdave: Dodd never caught on because there’s one thing that Americans seem to hate more than anything else these days; a smart guy who would do the right thing by our country.
Justin
I remember reading somewhere that the best way to stimulate the economy is to give every college student $25.00.
They would all spend it immediately, and they would likely spend it on domestic goods, beer and chicken wings.
Dennis - SGMM
Besides, who wants a guy who knows about banking and shit when we have a choice between Ruby Slippers and Forward to the 1990’s?
myiq2xu
Historian John D. Hicks wrote in Republican Ascendency 1921-1933 (1960) that
“As later events seemed to prove, money poured in at the top of the economic system tended to stay there, whereas money poured in at the bottom tended to rise through all levels of business and to strengthen the economy as a whole.”
Reagan wasn’t the first one to try “voodoo economics.” It was been tried before, during the last great period of GOP dominance, the 1920’s. The Secretary of the Treasury was Andrew Mellon, of whom Richard Mellon Scaife is an heir.
The book is an interesting read, it’s like deja vu all over again.
My favorite chapter is “The Years of the Locust.”
myiq2xu
The thing is this: Any money will end up in the pockets of the rich.
But if you give it to the poorest people, everybody on the way up to the penthouse will get to handle it first.
Tsulagi
Could have stopped your sentence right there.
So there are far better ways to stimulate the economy than these rebate checks. Simple ways anyone could find by taking a few hours to think or a couple of minutes with their Google. Likely scenario: The rebate checks will go out, Pubs will say they made it happen so vote Republican, and Democrats will say yeah, but we helped them too in the spirit of bipartisanship.
It’s a process.
myiq2xu
Smart kids.
Punchy
A political rusty trombone?
LiberalTarian
T. Scheisskopf hits the nail on the head. What makes professional, fully employed people feel better about the economy is not the target demographic for adding foodstamp dollars. In the part of the country I grew up in, getting that extra month of unemployment insurance and those food stamps meant a world of difference in quality of life. The dead of winter is no time to be losing your house.
Easy for someone who has no real idea of hardship to say 6 weeks’ unemployment benefits are meaningless, but it could be the difference between making that house payment or going into foreclosure. We like to think the sub-prime liar loans are the only people struggling, but if you’ve been paying on your house for 20 years and this particular year the woods closed early or whatever, you’re getting killed on the credit crunch, too.
Really, sometimes you have to spend more than 4 seconds thinking about who is being helped and why. That’s why Republicans always manage to let down Joe Public–not even 4 seconds worth of genuine compassion, but they have all kinds of tight-fisted, penury moralism.
myiq2xu
Is everything sexual to you, John?
Jeebus.
paradox
Throwing pennies at the desperate, the hungry, and the suffering not worth it?
How worth it it would be. How sick I am of this horribly mean and cruel country.
Zifnab
Trickle Up economics? That defies the very laws of physics. Do we look stupid to you?
paradox
Ramming down the throat connotes a fist traveling the correct distance in my mind, by the way. Truly.
Does everything have to get so sexual with you, fucksick?
Next time you sneer at one of my friends maybe you’ll hold your tongue. Sick of unthinking motherfuckers who are critical without a god damn clue, sick of them.
myiq2xu
Thqat’s why economics is the “dismal science.”
Grand Moff Texan
not even 4 seconds worth of genuine compassion, but they have all kinds of tight-fisted, penury moralism.
Perfect description of one of this site’s trolls.
I wonder where he is? I wanted to show him this.
.
TheFountainHead
See, myiq2xu, it’s Karma.
Be a troll, get one of your own!
myiq2xu
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooo . . . huh?
T. Scheisskopf
Paradox, you just hit my nail on the head. I, too, am fed up with this nation and its attitudes towards “the least of us”. “Mean and cruel” just scratches the surface. We are, as a nation, sadistic in extremis. I have no optimism about anything changing in my lifetime, either.
Like the guy on the motorcycle said: We got it wrong.
Punchy
Uh…hmmm….are you on the correct thread? Correct website?
myiq2xu
It’s tied to the concept of the “worthy poor” vs. the “unworthy poor.”
A unmrried single mother is “unworthy” because she is in that situation due to her own misdeeds, whereas a single mother whose husband (and the father of her child) is dead is “worthy” because she is faultless for her situation.
Go ahead and think of similar “worthy” vs. “unworthy” scenarios. It’s fun thinking of reasons why it’s okay to be selfish and greedy.
Grand Moff Texan
What? Just because I joined the thread it has to go all fucking China Syndrome right off the bat?
.
myiq2xu
You must have several then.
The Other Steve
I’m not being trickled on enough.
The Grand Panjandrum
Economic Darwinism only applies to those who are not rich, connected to the rich, or their political butt-boy. Large corporations do not compete on a level playing field. They rig the game in their favor. Ask all the mom and pop stores put out of business by Walmart. Walmart ALWAYS negotiates very big tax breaks when building a new store. The idea of an open and fair market is nonsense. Give those same tax breaks to a mom and pop and they could quite easily compete.
demimondian
Were you looking for me?
myiq2xu
What color is the sky on your world?
T. Scheisskopf
@G. Moff Texan Esq. :
Of course, once this story well and truly hits and fleshes out, all of the economic pundits and commentators will be falling over themselves to express their SHOCK, I TELL YOU, SHOCK(!!!) that this occurred.
While burping up the Pate de foie gras sandwiches they have been sent , for lunch, by these same companies for lo, these many years.
Can’t wait to see how many of charges are actually laid against people, how many are convicted, and how many receive sentences that account for their crimes. I expect to be totally unimpressed.
myiq2xu
Enough of the dirty sex-talk.
The Grand Panjandrum
You may want Bush to take it in the throat, but the rest of us are taking it in both ends.
Grand Moff Texan
Were you looking for me?
Nope, don’t even recognize your handle.
Why? Are you feeling trollish?
.
incontrolados
Punchy: serious
myiq2xu
Lucky you. I don’t have a social life.
Grand Moff Texan
I’ve already heard calls for a new RSC-type arrangement. That’s when the people who fucked up the companies are given their companies back after the taxpayer buys them.
That’s called “capitalism.” No one knows why.
.
myiq2xu
Now Demi’s a troll too? Jeebus, when did John change the rules?
TheFountainHead
Well, there’s you, there’s Cassidy (where he been lately?), and occasionally I’ll get trolled by Caidence or TZ–but I think of the last two as normal posters with trollish tendencies.
Sojourner
How can you say that? America is a good, Christan nation.
Grand Moff Texan
OK, everybody troll TheFountainHead.
I’ll start.
Uh,
[ahem]
uh, “yo mama so fat, her sleep-number is ‘ragu.'”
.
TheFountainHead
See, and here I thought I was going to leave work tonight without a good laugh. Many thanks GMT!
Jake
He’s talking about the non-rich/involuntary ankle grabbers.
It would be nice to think someone sat down and said “There’s too many proles, how do we get rid of them?” because that would at least take a little forethought, planning and competence. But as we know, those are four-letter words in the BAdmin. If “culling the herd” has been used at all it was as an after thought when someone noticed that the proles were starting to suffer.
Plus, higher crime rates mean we get to build more jailz!
Jen
Perhaps the economic slowdown is due to people giving all their money to Barack. I got this in an email…
It’s true. Back order city over there, including every single item reading “Women for Obama”. Those traitors, haven’t they heard what NOW-NY has to say?
incontrolados
Demi: Burn!11!!11!!1
Grand Moff Texan
You’re more than welcome, TheFountainHead.
.
TheFountainHead
The number of “Obama Mama” and “Mama for Obama” t-shirts on Cafe-press is impressive. Then again, there are also a lot of “Bros before Hoes” t-shirts there as well.
myiq2xu
Okay, Cassidey, but Caidence and TZ? Lemme guess, your definition of a troll is anyone who disagrees with you?
Get a grip (on something besides yourself)
Does not compute!
Punchy
Please just speak for yourself.
Punchy
inco, please no more blind links without work safe/unsafe warnings. Luckily the filter got it, but now somewhere, somehow, the IT guy now thinks I surf for “sexual materials” at work.
The Moar You Know
Paradox: thank you for saying it right. Our treatment of the “least among us” is horrifying, sadistic, and inexcusable.
The reasons we, as a society, make up so that we can continue to not help them are a shame to our human intellect.
TheFountainHead
Nah, I use this definition.
Though, I wish people would stop disagreeing with me. The nerve.
The Turing thing is pretty funny though. I wonder if Sully has seen that…he’d get a kick out of it.
LiberalTarian
Please. Somebody pee on The Other Steve.
Grand Moff Texan
Though, I wish people would stop disagreeing with me. The nerve.
Wrong as usual, fuckstick.
.
TheFountainHead
See, that’s how it’s done.
incontrolados
Punchy — sooooo sorry :(
(It was serious lolcat.)
magisterludi
Perhaps the economic slowdown is due to people giving all their money to Barack. I got this in an email…
that BHO has a corner on the market for Magic Beans!
myiq2xu
Well at least you didn’t call me a fascist.
Grand Moff Texan
Tough titty if it wasn’t, ya fairy.
.
TheFountainHead
Cause i have no reason to believe you are one. Plus, I don’t think JC gets too many fascists trolling around here, they’re often too busy trying to keep the RedState solvent. Cassidy notwithstanding.
Zifnab
Something about “Whaa! Whaa! Why aren’t you voting for my pet candidate? This is everyone’s fault but Hillary’s!”
God damn, people like that make me gag. I get enough petty whiny bullshit from the right-wing. I don’t need to hear it from the left as well.
tBone
There are more trolls in Balloon Juice threads than are dreamed of in your philosophy.
myiq2xu is just a wannabe.
myiq2xu
Speak for yourself
myiq2xu
Jeebus, I don’t want to join the Obama Nation and suddenly I’m a right-wing troll.
What a bunch of dumbasses.
demimondian
inc — I am, indeed, properly humilified. I will now crawl back under the drawbridge to the demi-bunker in something approximating mortification.
Krista
Who said anything about right-wing? Hm…?
People often confuse the troll with sockpuppets. Basically, all sockpuppets are trolls, but not all trolls are sockpuppets. More often than not, trolling is just poking everybody with a stick, trying to see what reaction you’ll get.
And we’ve all done it, purely for shits and giggles. For example, tBone just trolled you quite effectively, didn’t he?
demimondian
Krista, apparently, not all trolls are trolls. I was deeply disappointed to learn that my troll card appears to have been revoked, for instance.
Did you have anything to do with that?
demimondian
How “honest” of you. Just keep speaking truth to power, tBone.
Jon H
Marx was an economist. J’Accuse!!
tBone
Nah, I don’t think you’re a right-wing troll. Just a lefty wannabe troll who’s not very good at it.
Poke, poke.
Ah, those were days, when true right-wing trolls bestrode Ballon Juice like a colossus.
demimondian
You know, I never thought I’d ever miss The Senator.
I still don’t think I’ll ever miss him.
tBone
You have to admit, though – since he left, this blog has suffered from a distinct deficiency in plagiarizing, punctuation-challenged blowhards with Boy Scout fixations.
demimondian
True enough.
And without him, we’re down one necrophiliac, too. Although just the other day, JWW applied for that position, so…
JWW for Senator! We need a loony!
libarbarian
You are either on the transcending bus or you are off the transcending bus. Next Stop …… a little place called “Hope”.
Asti
It only makes sense that if you want to stimulate the economy, you give money to the people who need to spend it the most. The only problem is, eventually, it always finds it’s way into the bank accounts of those who don’t need, or intend, to spend it at all. For that reason, any time that the plan to stimulate the economy is based on cash spending, it’s only a temporary solution.
Krista
I plead both ignorance and innocence.
Daniel Munz
If I were a member of Congress and a Democrat, I would be ramming this down Bush’s throat:
Okay, this drives me nuts a little, because Sen. Tom Harkin — a member of Congress (a Senator, in fact!) and a Democrat — actually spent most of last Thursday ramming this down Bush’s throat.
We’re putting it on TV, people. Live, public, national television. What does he have to do, show up on your door?
Bob In Pacifica
What do retirees gets? I pay taxes on the pittance tossed into my thin gruel.