We know the last $750,000,000,000,000 of your money spent / debt increase did not work out in terms of creating jobs, and now they want to do it again. If you were not aware, the jobs the government tries to artificially create with "stimulus" packages are not really viable long-term occupations, and certainly not a real solution. Basically, for the relatively low number of jobs created, which included more government jobs that we can never get rid of, or go nowhere jobs like the failed house caulker program, the effort is more damaging than usefule. Lately, you hear "invest in infrastructure" (road construction). Are you aware how many billions of dollars are already allotted every year for this?
Tacking on tens of billions more to create some temporary non-skilled jobs is not job creation. By the way, have you ever known of anyone who went down to the local road construction company and got a job? It is mindboggling sad that people buy into the concept of stimulus so naively. The bottom line is, and don't be naive and biased because you agree with some single aspect of a political party's platform, governments do not create real jobs, people and businesses do.
Politicians do know something. About 1 in 10,000 Americans will ever really look into where their money / national debt increase went with the last stimulus plan. If they did take a minute to learn about something they pretend to know something about, they would be horrified, if they are a reason driven individual. Politicians know that they can tell anyone anything, like a government run healthcare plan will lead to choice, competition, and no new tax burden. Think about it. They will tell you anything. They will do it because they know they are dealing with an enormous mass of uniformed people. By the way, watching the news and reading non-objective blogs and newspapers certainly does not make anyone intelligently informed.
Again, it seems like basic economics, but if you want to stimulate something you would do so by lessening the massive business taxes, government controls, and expensive counterproductive regulations that small and large businesses suffer through, so they can invest, grow, and begin hiring more. That is a real jobs plan and it does not involve growing an already massive government. As usual, politicians don't have the will to do anything really useful. You would also put money in the right hands, not into the hands of government bureaucrats and programs. I know, that makes too much sense, and common sense is something many are not interested in. Next time you hear a politician talking stimulus, as if that sounds like something useful, keep in mind that there really was no stimulus at all last time, just more handouts and government waste. Hiring a pile of government workers to annoy us with more road construction redos is not job creation.
For amusement, and because I felt the ability to stomach it, I looked at the breakdown as to where the money, that we do not have, went to with the last stimulus. The breakdown is too long to list, but below are some highlights.
Key Economic Stimulus Plan Items (actual):
- Filipino World War II veterans compensation
- Grants and loans for green investment in section 8 properties
- NASA exploration
- Homelessness prevention and re-housing
- YouthBuild program for high school dropouts who re-enroll in other schools
- Census Bureau programs
- Defense Department facilities operation (multiple)
- Historically black colleges and universities preservation
- Government Accountability Office salaries and expenses
- Local and state fire station upgrades and construction
- School lunch programs for schools
- Wildfire mitigation
- Grants-in-aid for airports
- National Endowment for the Arts grants
- Addressing health professions workforce shortage
- Community Service Block Grant Program
- Food distribution program on Indian reservations
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Bureau of Indian Affairs job training and housing improvement programs
- Indian guaranteed loan program
- Temporary increase in benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Program (food stamps) ($20 billion)
- State and local law enforcement assistance to Indian tribes
- AmeriCorps program salaries and expenses
No offense to any of these programs, but how are these programs going to stimulate the economy and create jobs? They are not and that was not the intent of these political donations. The government cannot stimulate anything, only businesses can. Sorry to point out the blatantly obvious once again.
Maybe it is just my way of thinking, but isn't it completely asinine to give your money to car manufacturers, banks, and financial companies as a reward for their inefficiencies and irresponsible business practices? If companies are going to manage their corporate balance sheets and income statements, like many do in their personal life, then they need to pay the piper. The world and economy would not have ended if they would have just let them sink. The economy has millions of well run responsible companies to shoulder the burden for the irresponsible. Zero lessons were learned, as usual, just handing them a check. Why we keep rewarding companies and people for the bad decisions they make should be studied.
Stimulus: To give away other people's money and/or increase their future debt obligations in order to make some groups and people like you.
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