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No Stimulus Package. No Bailouts.

Let's also not forget that the conservative wankfest is over the CRA, and roughly 15% of foreclosed homes fell under the provisions of that law. The rest didn't, and yet conservatives insist on blaming the CRA.

Crash:

I like your signature. Thanks for pointing out the canard involving the CRA. Another point I'd like to make is that it's not just poor unemployed people who are suffering because of the housing crisis -- you know, those people. :rolleyes:

Part of the cascade effect is that credit-worthy folks who continue to pay their mortgages are also hurt. The more foreclosures, the worse it is for those left in those neighborhoods. Their home values also become depressed.

That's why President Obama (f**k the elect) is correct that we need a moratorium on foreclosures. Hell, I'd push for a year-long moratorium to give the stimulus package time to work its way through the economy.

Tax cuts alone won't do it, my conservative friends!

Red Ranger
 
Any govt. intervention in the economy is likely to be for the worst in my opinion.

Dayton3:

I find it interesting that your answers are short and simplistic. There is actually a consensus among liberal and conservative economists and business leaders that a stimulus is necesssary to jump-start the economy. This isn't some liberal, or even communist, plot to take money away from you and other "hard-working Americans." We're in a crisis and we can't just sit on our hands and hope things will get better all by themselves! Tax cuts alone won't solve the problem. Conservative orthodoxy has failed America. Time for a different plan!

Red Ranger
 
RR, since you have some real and seemngly viable understanding in economics, let me ask a sincere question. With a stimulus package, where does the money come from? I presume it's being borrowed, which also begs the question of how to pay it back.

That is asked in earnest, because I'm genuinely trying to understand the underpinnings of how a stimulus package works, or can work.
 
I don't necessarily consider government intervention in the economy to be "socialistic" but I do think that govt. intervention ususally makes things worse.

Look at the Great Depression. While President Hoover was trashed for "not doing enough" about the depression, he in fact did a number of things and take a number of govt. actions (and no, I'm not going to link to anything, that is a subject that takes entire volumes) and by and large they served to deepen and prolong the depression.

People suffering shouldn't be the only consideration for government intervention.
 
RR, since you have some real and seemngly viable understanding in economics, let me ask a sincere question. With a stimulus package, where does the money come from? I presume it's being borrowed, which also begs the question of how to pay it back.

That is asked in earnest, because I'm genuinely trying to understand the underpinnings of how a stimulus package works, or can work.

Neroon:

I hear you. Deficit spending is not the best solution in the world, but the problem is we're in a bad situation. The government has the ability to print money. It's not a great solution, but there are limited tools in the current situation. The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates almost to zero, so that lever isn't as effective.

Deficit spending did work in the 1980s to a limited degree. What's interesting is that when conservatives advocate deficit spending, it's OK. When it's a Democrat advocating it, it's socialism, communism, etc.

Once the stimulus package works its way through the economy, the U.S. then needs to work to become a nation of savers and not consumers. Part of the stimulus package will include infrastructure spending. Better roads and bridges helps commerce -- reduces the time it takes for workers to get to their jobs, and truckers to transport freight throughout the country. So that's just part of the effect of such a package.

Obama is also adding tax cuts for businesses and individuals, which I think isn't the best time to do so, but the combination may prove a potent way to jump-start the economy.

Red Ranger
 
I don't think the U.S. should invest in roads and bridges.

Just a subsidy for the auto and truck industry in the long run.

Privatize them and allow a corporations to operate the roads and bridges for tolls.
 
What is OK and what is not OK is all too often a matter of perspective based on one's personal ppolitical filters. Even so, I appreciate the Reader's Digest version of what makes a stimulus package tick. We are indeed in dire straits, so even the mroe distasteful solutions have to be considered if we're ever to get out from under this cloud.

Something is still escaping me, though. We print this money, but what stops the government from printing even more? There has to be a practical limit on it. Moreover, doesn't that increase our national debt in some way, or is that anticipated growth in the number of savers intended to offset that debt. Or at least part of that debt?
 
I don't think the U.S. should invest in roads and bridges.

Just a subsidy for the auto and truck industry in the long run.

Privatize them and allow a corporations to operate the roads and bridges for tolls.

Dayton3: Oy, vey! States that have gone that way have regretted privatizing that function. It's clear you think private enterprise is the solution for everything. We've had eight years disproving that thesis, my knee-jerk conservative friend. Look carefully at Obama's plan -- it's a combination of government and private-sector initiatives. That's what we need to solve our crisis, a partnership between the two, not depending on one or the other. All hands on deck! -- RR
 
I don't think the U.S. should invest in roads and bridges.

Just a subsidy for the auto and truck industry in the long run.

Privatize them and allow a corporations to operate the roads and bridges for tolls.

Dayton3: Oy, vey! States that have gone that way have regretted privatizing that function. It's clear you think private enterprise is the solution for everything. We've had eight years disproving that thesis, my knee-jerk conservative friend. Look carefully at Obama's plan -- it's a combination of government and private-sector initiatives. That's what we need to solve our crisis, a partnership between the two, not depending on one or the other. All hands on deck! -- RR

To call President Bush conservative in economics or domestic affairs is ridiculous.

The United States hasn't had conservative president in economics since the first term of President Reagan.
 
Most Americans wouldn't know conservatism if it bit them on the ass (liberalism too, for that matter).
 
Most Americans wouldn't know conservatism if it bit them on the ass (liberalism too, for that matter).

Unfortunately, conservatism has bit America on the ass -- witness the result! :wtf: -- RR

I wouldn't call the recent cock-ups conservatism. Greed. Arrogance. Short-sighted. A Betrayal of Freedom. Yes, those labels fit. But Barry Goldwater is spinning in his grave.
 
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Ironically, I voted for Barry Goldwater (AUH2O) in the first election where I was eligible. I AM a card-carrying liberal because my Christianity demands it of me. "As you do this to the least of these..." I prefer to think of a liberal breadth of vision. Observation and evidence inform my thinking, not Fox Noise.
 
Any govt. intervention in the economy is likely to be for the worst in my opinion.
It hasn't been that way when it was done in the past, so there is little reason to think future intervention would do so in the future.
 
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