From the VOMITORIUM
It is Spring and a young man’s fancy turns to LOVE……..a sickening love….a festival of amorous ramblings by politicos and journalists…..(at this point I am shoving my finger down my throat and forcing a good strong puke)……
The wiz kid of the GOP, Rep. Ryan, has offered his 2012 budget and the analysis begins…he has been called courageous….he has been called a visionary….he has been called many thing….some good….some bad….but the beltway is full love for the boy genius…..the love in is sickening…..not one of the politics reports that the numbers do not add up…..they do not question it when he says unemployment will be 2.8%….it has not been that low in 50+ years……it is a pipedream ………
The most glaring number was Heritage’s unemployment projection, which they saw dropping to 6.4% in 2012 and an unprecedented 2.8% in 2021. In an interview with Slate‘s Dave Weigel, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, William Beach, admitted his study’s figures might strain belief.the CBO concluded that not only would the new proposal cost seniors more than the current Medicare plan, but that the cost to seniors could triple by 2030. And the CBO concluded, there was no indication that the cost would not continue to rise thereafter.
Finally the CBO concludes that there would be no significant reduction to the deficit despite shifting the cost from Medicare to individual seniors. Government contribution (the subsidies) under the proposed system would have to reflect the higher costs of private insurance and take into account the declining income of seniors as well as their probable higher health costs…..
The problem is the boy genius gets his talking points from the Heritage Foundation……that conservative think tank that has all the ideas that Repubs use in their attacks on social issues…..
Please stop calling this man a genius or courageous or whatever you think is adequate……stop the love fest! Report on the numbers that he gets from the Heritage bunch…….there is NOTHING courageous about repeating points and figures you are given by your controlling think tank…….
I have to wonder… is this the same Heritage Foundation, at the beginning of the economic meltdown, that said that government should let Wall Street be unregulated and give minimal bailout when things go to hell.
Here we go….
But as lawmakers debate buying up hundreds of billions in assets, they should realize that the government’s aggressive meddling in financial decision-making is what got our economy into this mess in the first place. The long-term answer isn’t more federal control, it’s a return to free-market principles.
One way to do so is to make sure that any bailouts are as limited as possible. If a private firm is so integral to the financial operations of the economy that it requires assistance, so be it. But in that case, the taxpayers’ should be investing as little as possible, and company employees and stockholders should suffer the consequences of their bad investments.
— Ed Feulner
Yep…same place…..and also a proponent of the trickle down theory of economics…..have you noticed they have tried a new tack….it is no longer privatization but rather personalization….cute huh?
There’s nothing wrong with trickle down – if it did, or course, which it doesn’t…
After 30+ years of failure to trickle down….how do they keep selling this piece of manure?
Because it SHOULD work. It just doesn’t – and that’s because the estimation assumes a level playing field which doesn’t ever exist – particularly in the US
I wish I could get more of my fellow Americans to realize this….thanx…..
You know what? I agree 100% with Ed Feulner on that.
Furthermore, I would add that the taxpayers should demand a VERY good rate of return on that enforced investment and that return (along with the invested capital) should (by law) become payable BEFORE employees and stockholders get any rewards at all when the company returns to profit!!!!!
Many may say that more control is required and I can sympathise with that (though I don’t agree – largely because the controllers are often even less able than the controlled), but bailing out companies that have FAILED to do business wisely and protect themselves properly is NOT – I repeat, NOT – a free market, it’s protected gambling! Playing the “too big to fail” card is no more or better than operating a protection racket!
Great points and as we know I agree with you…..we need to settle our revenue problem before we can solve our spending problem….
That is my biggest issue with the statement. Heritage will advocate for an unregulated free market with no involvement in the government. However, in this case, they are carving out an exception.
If the government is to be not allowed to be involved in the market, then it would be logical that government should not be in the business of cleaning up their mess. After seeing the mess that is called TARP and the ones before it, I think that the policy should be to just let them fail. Let them suffer the consequences of their poor choices – they certainly expect us to do so.
@ Terrant @ Quin….exactly…exactly…….responsibility and all that!
@Terrant: EXACTLY!!!