I just don't know any more and perhaps soon enough I just won't care. I got cornered by a woman at my club last night who went on and on about her money being wasted in earmarks for tattoo removal. This seems to be the red herring this week and the fishy smell of course is emanating from Fox, with people ( and I use the term loosely) like Michelle Malkin working overtime to make the most of it.
Apparently some money will go to a program to remove gang tattoos in California. Some will go for the Lobster fishing industry in Maine -- I don't need to repeat the litany, just turn on Fox or read any of the Ditto sites that repeat it ad nauseam, but we're hearing far less about billions to companies that use it for executive pay and bonuses; jets and yachts than we are about millions to entities that spend money on the poor and disadvantaged or on industries that employ Americans. All around her, of course are bankrupt businesses, foreclosed houses and homeless people. Perhaps one of them works for a dermatologist who removes tattoos. Perhaps there's someone who works in maintaining the 20,000 or so acres of parkland in this county -- land that attracts more in tourism than we spend making it pretty.
Certainly some of them in this coastal village are commercial fishermen whose boats are being foreclosed on, which is affecting the sales of gasoline and services which is forcing marinas to close and people in boatyards and grocery stores and tackle shops to be laid off. Saving an industry that employs Americans is at least a bridge to somewhere and criticism from people who have represented and supported the greatest orgy of non-productive pork barrel spending is almost as disgusting -- well, as Michelle Malkin.
It's easy to call any budget a series of "earmarks" and it beats me to think about how one allocates funds without allocating funds, unless you follow the Bush/Paulson "don't ask because we won't tell, you liberal bastard" model. One thing is for sure; some Maine fisherman is more likely to be salting cod with whatever comes his way from this package than salting money away in the Caymans or buying German cars or yachts made in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The whole idea of economic stimulus is to produce liquidity and improve the velocity of money so that maybe fewer people will lose their homes and jobs and businesses. The sudden parsimony of people who said nothing as tens of trillions of debt piled up, as money disappeared into the bowels of offshore corporations like Halliburton, was disbursed in pizza boxes to Iraqi war profiteers and corrupt politicians, should be embarrassing. Being a Republican however, is never to feel embarrassment, guilt or remorse, but to look for the solace of being told it's the doing of the "liberals."
As I said, I'm almost to the point of not caring any more. If we really are a nation of people hypocritically obsessed with the motes in other people's eyes, or stimulus packages, to the point where they would gladly see the end of the United States as a world power, we deserve what we get.
Fortunately, most people are in favor of the stimulus.
ReplyDeleteThe more Republicans whine and obstruct, the more likely they are to be out of jobs come 2011.
I think my perceptions are skewed by living in an area where everyone I know is retired military or defense contractor employee. I have to keep reminding myself that Obamas approval rating is at least 2 1/2 times what Bush's fell to.
ReplyDeleteNearly everyone I know watches Fox and Fox exclusively and sees them as a beacon of sanity in a devious world and it's hard not to be depressed about it.
I get frustrated all the time, but then I tell myself wait, it's okay - Bush is gone and people seem to be noticing that the Republicans are idiots.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how long that will last, but Obama seems good at creating political capital for himself. I'd say we're in pretty good shape for awhile.
Fogg - I just had to go look into what this whole tattoo removal is all about before commenting because I have been hearing the same earmark soundbites but not much in the way of particulars. What I found was this:
ReplyDelete"The Clean Slate program, a part of the city of San Jose's gang diversion and intervention effort, which began in 1994 just removing gang tattoos but has since evolved to offer more comprehensive counseling and referrals to jobs and educational opportunities. Since then, the city has spent $146,000 on the project, purchasing the laser and paying a staffer. Valley Medical Center donates the space and the doctors donate their time. Spending roughly $400 per patient, the program has helped rid 350 young people of the physical markings of a gang life left behind.
In return for the treatments, which would cost anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 if they weren't donated, program participants are expected to complete 50 to 100 hours of community service, enroll in school or a job program, and attend weekly counseling sessions. Patients complete their community service stints at community organizations like local churches, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Red Cross."
With the rise in gang violence and a continued decrease in the ages of these offenders when they get started, this kind of program isn't as frivolous as they are trying to make it sound. While it won't repair all our social ills, at least it is a starting point.
And, we have to start somewhere! Otherwise I will have to keep telling the stories of all the bright young people whose lives have abruptly ended in violence and I REALLY want it stop.
Great to know rocky.
ReplyDeleteSo in the Republicans' minds:
Removing potentially vicious gang markings, promoting community service, promoting work and education, and receiving counseling = tattoo removal
Simplify, simplify, simplify to the lowest common denominator. That's the GOP way. There's no gray area! Just plain old black and white.
The reason so many people are torqued off about the incessant flow of earmarks is that this was something that Obama was supposed to "change" when he got into office. Instead, he's on track to double the national deficit.
ReplyDeleteI won't debate whether the specific issue that Rocky highlighted (tattoo removal) is a good thing to fund (as it is). But in the push to quickly stimulate the economy, there are far better ways than this when we're rushing to spend trillions more than we have.
The whole idea of economic stimulus is to produce liquidity and improve the velocity of money so that maybe fewer people will lose their homes and jobs and businesses.
And yet I still see nothing in the BS package that will do this.
"He that stealeth from the poor lendeth to the lord; thus spake Zarathustra." (Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's Ulysses.) That seems to have been the Bush Administration's governing philosophy lo these many years. I'm for some FDR-style guv'ment activism just now: anything that generates employment is a good thing. President Obama is correct that we should worry about our national debt as soon as we get free of the present crisis; revenues aren't sufficient to fund all the things we want to do. But the sordid truth is that Congressional and executive-branch Republicans of late didn't care about massive deficits so long as very little of the money spent helped any American with a net worth of less than several million dollars. I have no patience with their current arguments about "fiscal responsibility" in the midst of disaster.
ReplyDeleteI am so tired - so bloody tired - of all of the petty political squabbling in this country. I swear we could all pull a Rip Van Winkle & when we awoke again - years later - we'd find this country of ours still immersed in the same mind-numbing, unproductive, self-serving, political jockeying for position.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite frankly sick of it.
While I harbor no delusions that bloggers will make much of a positive difference, the greatest fun of blogging is political squabbling. The Swash Zone Members are outstanding bloggers. I'm sorry you're sick of it Squid. I hope you and your group keeps up the good fight though.
ReplyDelete"But in the push to quickly stimulate the economy, there are far better ways than this when we're rushing to spend trillions more than we have."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we'd like to hear those ways. Are they anything like the "trickle down" policies that have yet to show evidence of working?
Harking back to the the previous Republican caused Depression, I seem to remember similar opposition to the WPA, CCC and social security - and yes even to our entering WW II. It's my opinion that the depression not only would have been worse, but that communism would have been a greater possibility had such measures not been taken.
I'm not aiming this at you, Patrick, but I've said elsewhere that all the talk about fiscal responsibility reminds me of the 450 pound diet guru lecturing us on how to eat. At least this money is being spent in the US and if some of it gets people out of gangs and into jobs or keeps a lobster fisherman from losing his boat, it's doing what it was supposed to do.
Have y'all noticed that we've been put on the defensive by the creative use of the word "Earmarks" to obscure a budgeting process? Just how do we allocate funds without allocating funds? No matter how much gets allocated to a project, they will complain it's an "earmark" and therefore bad.
ReplyDeleteThe devil is in the details and the Republicans are, like Buster Brown's dog, in there too.
Patrick, I have no illusions as to the trustworthiness of politicians and so I too am watching the bills coming out of congress. I do have some concerns about some items and about the lack of details I have been able to find. I have, in fact, sent emails to my Senator and to the White House. does anybody read it? Who knows, one can only hope.
ReplyDeleteBut I think it is inaccurate to call everything we DON'T like an "earmark" just because we don't like it.
As for some items such as the tattoo removal issue: While I'm not sure this actually belongs in a stimulus package, it is NOT the frivolous item some would have us believe. As for the economy, when rebuilding an economy and trying to attract industry to invest itself, there are a complex set of factors that will be considered. While jobs and money flow certainly are BIG factors, you must have something to offer in exchange.
Think of just your own circumstances. I know you have children, so, would you move your family to a city where you can make twice the money you do now, but where the schools rank in the bottom third and violent crimes rank in the top ten?
Infrastructure is important to industry because that dictates how easily and cheaply they can transport product. Schools, crime, cultural offerings all play a part in attracting business and thus growing an economy.
As I said, I'm not totally sold on the current stimulus and I don't doubt that there may be stuff in there that probably shouldn't be. But, since we are at the end of the rope, I believe we should allow the new administration to proceed.
To keep calling this a failure before it has even gotten off the ground is nothing but sour grapes.
It certainly can't be any worse than Bush's handout to Wall Street - talk about irresponsible leadership!
"Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again"
ReplyDeleteRemember Archie and Edith singing that? More to the point, do you remember when Herbert Hoover thought we should do like Ron Paul suggests and leave the markets alone to rectify themselves and When old Mr. Harding thought it was just great to boost the economy by slashing taxes for Mr. Gatsby?
Same old song, same old Republicans. No, the bailout isn't perfect, because it isn't benefiting me or my interests and it might just help someone I feel superior to and so let them eat cake or whatever it is the peasants eat and besides doing anything for your fellow Americans is just Marxism and so let's let it all go to hell while we wait for a program that doesn't waste one goddamn dime.
Why do we bother arguing?
Capt: Actually, I did come up with an idea or two. In short, it cuts almost everything with the idea of freeing up lots of cash and fixing our ever-growing dependence on government largess and intervention (the latter being the cause of the instability).
ReplyDeleteNo, the bailout isn't perfect, because it isn't benefiting me...
I'm pretty certain the bailout will benefit me, based on where I am financially. Despite that, I'm convinced it's absolutely the wrong direction.
Rocky: But, since we are at the end of the rope, I believe we should allow the new administration to proceed.
When you're at the end of your rope, you should do something that rectifies the situation, not add more rope. And while this mess didn't begin with Obama, he's chosen about the worst possible way to address it.
It certainly can't be any worse than Bush's handout to Wall Street - talk about irresponsible leadership!
The Bush/Obama bailout era will be either a stain on our history that will take years to erase, or the beginning of the end of our country as we know it.