Breaking the Stimulus Package

I am getting sick of all of this the misleading focus on the "pork". The bill is fundamentally flawed. I hope the republicans are not just being obstructionists. I don't think they are. I don't want to paint them as saviors, but it is a two party system after all.

The package has five main parts with some over lay and bad little bits. The US first ideas about purchases is a bad little bit. Focus and the main parts is imperative. First the pork. Things like the fountains in Washington state and water parks in Florida. That overlaps with the so called stimulative spending. That is the road spending and well that is really it from where sit but some include school improvements and the like. That then overlaps into what i call regulatory spending. The green jobs, efficient buildings, carbon reduction demonstration, std education and weather stripping type programs. The more distinct sections are the tax cuts. The other is the social safety net expansions. That is the 65% payments of COBRA, food stamp and unemployment extensions and blanket medicare cover for the unemployed?

The Pork. Pork is Pork do you need and argument against it? The bill way to expensive. We already carry to much dept. Let it go.

The Stimulus. There is going to be some in this bill. They have to be labor intensive, can start this year, the finished product helps the economy and the project will be there for 10+ years. Stimulus is not better than tax cuts as follows.

The Regulatory. Dump it all. This is not the time to tinker with everything. None of it meets the criteria of the Stimulus section, it applies here to. Do we need any more panels and commissions? More bureaucracy.

The Safety Net. It is more Social engineering. That in part is what got us into this. People need help now. Fine. That cannot become the base line for next years spending. If we spend less next year on them it cannot be allowed to be called cut. There must be an iron clad sunset of these expansions.

The Tax Cuts. Is it More stimulating to give a business a 1000 in tax cuts or 1000 in sales? Sales in the end puts only the profits in there pockets and then they pay taxes on it. The cuts as I know them now they are just gimmicks. 1000 to individuals will do nothing. People will save it and when things come back it will be there to go back into the economy and spur inflation. Fast write off are just giving money to companies now instead of two years or so from now. What is that going to do as we recover? Both of the cut are doing more harm than good. The cuts have to rate cuts and they have to be certain. People can't think that they can be raised in a couple months.

Not In the Bill

1. Bad asset fix( the original TARP would have done it)
2. A housing fix. Encourage interest cut till the loans are solvent. No cram down
3. Reverse the mark to market and up tick changes
4. Clear path to get business out from under the Government
5. Clear statement that we will let everyone fail after one or two round of help( bad but it's where we are)
6. Clear statement of capitalism
7. Sunsets for everything, Anything not spent in the next 2 years is taken back.

The bill is fundamentally wrong. It has to be stopped. Filibuster. STOP Talking pork. It is just spin and is unbelievably stupid. It is the least of the problems. Filibuster!

JAG, 6 years and Frustration

I have been trying more sleep at night, so I am up in the morning and have has the chance to watch the reruns of JAG, the latter ones. The show has been off the air for some time but they are talking about the war on terror and 9/11. Just saying its been 6 yrs doesn't sink in with out some sign post to look at. I remember a conversation, just one, with my grandmother about Bush and the war. I think the news was on and she made a comment. She was in the war is bad always camp, except for WWII of course. She has been dead for two years and that was 2-3 yrs before that. i can't believe so much has happened my life and the life of this country in last 6 yrs.

It frustrates me that we have tried to do so much and have achieved so little. i am not saying we haven't had any accomplishments, we have. I just thought at the beginning we would fight this head on and have it mostly wrapped up in ten years and under control in 15-20 years. It looks as if we talk big and in reality are just slowing the progress of the terror agenda. i don't understand the general apathy. Why we didn't bring our diversity of thought, technological achievements and just general ingenuity to bear on this thing (and still don't and probably won't) and get it over with, i haven't got got a clue. i get a hard felling in my chest every time i think about it. It is not anger any more. It might be a frustration that i can't get past or understand. I am hopping it is not an acceptance of our weakness, of a slow slide back, or that people are only so strong, so bright and because of that history is a cycle that we will repeat over and over.