Newt Gingrich:

“One morning, just like 9/11, there’s going to be a disaster."

'We're not going to tolerate a North Korean missile launch, period.' I mean, the world's either got to decide that North Korea is utterly dangerous -- I'd recommend, look at electromagnetic pulse, which changes every equation about how risky these weapons are."

When I read that Newt was advocating attacking North Korea (with risky ray guns!) I could not write seriously anymore.

I had to express myself with the above cartoon.

(image and words copyright Jeff Blackwell 2009) 

It took a couple of weeks, but after President Obama released his budget plan last month, the Republicans came up with their response; (sing it with me now) "It spends too much, it taxes too much, it borrows too much."

House Republicans went so far as to predicted a doomsday scenario of crushing debt and eventual federal bankruptcy.

From the Washington Post, March 18, "Republicans are howling about the proposal to expand health coverage and tax greenhouse gas emissions without their input, warning that it could irrevocably damage relations with the new president."

"That would be the Chicago approach to governing: Strong-arm it through," said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.),

Finally, last Thursday, Rep. John Boehner(R-OH) gathered the press to reveal the Republicans' alternative budget proposal.

OK, guys, let's see your numbers.

“Here it is, Mr. President,” Boehner crowed, looking exceptionally pleased with himself.

Here it is indeed.

To say that the Republicans' "Road to Recovery" that Boehner distributed was underwhelming would be satire.

Fascinatingly, the Republican's budget contains no actual numbers. None at all.

It is all of 19 pages, five of which I am reproducing below:

 

 

 

 

I think you can sum up the entire "Republican Road to Recovery" document with this helpful image:

 

 Nice work, guys.

 

In the midst (we hope it's the midst, rather than the cusp) of a financial crisis that is rivaled only by the "Great Depression" of the 1930's, which by all reports is continuing to drag the world into the first global recession, our new President has a plan.

The plan involves the traditional, time-tested means for pulling the U.S. economy out of a slump - spending by the federal government and cutting taxes.

[Disclaimer]
I am not sure this is necessary, but let me say right now that I am no macro-economist. Thanks to the saving and spending habits taught by parents who lived through the Great Depression and who internalized the conservation and rationing of resources expected of the American public during the Second World War, which were passed onto me, I am in reasonable shape. But this fortunate circumstance should not infer any formal education or practical experience in managing budgets with more than six zeros.
[End of Disclaimer]

So, President Obama has a plan, which he put together with some of what are considered to be pretty fair economic minds, which leans in a somewhat - but by no means entirely - different direction from the previous, Republican-dominated administration. That would be the one that drove the economy to where we find ourselves now.

President Obama's plan, unlike the unconditional gifts to the banking bosses by Bush  - which we learned were spent significantly to enrich those same bosses, rather than used to "free up" the "stuck" credit market by making loans to people to buy houses, cars and such - Obama plans for accountability of the funds by funneling most of them through the federal government. (Skepticism duly noted.)

Hsitory tells us that this method was quite helpful in bringing us out of the Great Depression and yielded some wonderful benefits such as new school buildings, national parks, electrification of rural areas - and art that is considered a high point in American culture. I highly recommend spending a few minutes reading about the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corp (Corp- not Corporation). These programs, with millions employed directly by the federal government, including WWI veterans, living in work camps all around the country is a story of true American ingenuity and spirit, and was a great source of pride for generations. The useful and truly beautiful work of these men and women is a under-appreciated legacy of these hard-working Americans, and frequently denigrated by Republicans as socialism.

Obama's plans for this "massive" (a relative term if there ever was one) federal spend include some of the same actions as the post World War programs - rebuilding schools and public buildings, and dealing with our critical failng infrastructure, but also the first significant federal effort - ever - to end our dependency on fossil fuel - a dirty, non-renewable fuel - and produce thirty times as much clean, renewable energy as we do now within four years. And, yes, a few dollars for public art.

In addition to the government spending, Obama is proposing allowing President Bush's massive tax cuts - the ones that benefit primarily our wealthiest citizens - to expire as planned, rather than to cut them off now, as he promised during the campaign. Other tax cuts, and possibly rebates - these favoring the middle class - are also planned.

He is talking about spending a "lot" of money on these ambitious plans to pull our economy out of the nose dive we are in. The numbers are not final, and experience says that numbers on this scale are never measured within any real precision, but we could be talking about a trillion dollars. Most of this would need to be borrowed. (And so ends the trail of my knowledge of macroeconomics.)

Obviously, borrowing a trillion dollars is not on anyone's list of things to do. But sometimes you have to spend to earn. Deficit spending by the government has been an effective technique in reversing national economies, and has actually resulted in eventual surpluses at least once - Bill Clinton was president, as I recall.

I have read several economists who claim that the Obama plan is actually several orders of magnitude too small (!) to have an immediate and significant effect on the worldwide (yes, this is our first truely global recession) economy.

SO - this leads me to the Republicans. Ahh, the Republicans. The ones who got us here.

As was completely to be expected, the Republicans don't like the new President's plan to try to save us all from watching our 401k funds circling the drain, and the remainder of American jobs being eliminated or shipped over to where ever labor is cheapest at the moment.

"Oh. My. God." was the reaction of John Bohner, R- Ohio House Minority Leader.

The Republicans don't think that paying American men and women to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and help convert us to clean, renewable energy should be a function of the government. If that happens, their friends, the CEOs in the oil, construction and banking industries might be cut out of the loop! They may be told to back away from the public trough!

Rather than funding these wasteful government programs, the Republicans prefer the much more efficient and proven method of transferring wealth to them and their friends: Let them stop paying taxes. Forever.

By exempting the rich from taxes, we solve all of their problems. With the possible exceptions of actually being on a bridge when it collapses or getting a case of lung cancer from polluted air. But, for the good of the country, those are risks they are willing to take.

God love 'em.