The Final Word

Remember the post I had last week about the House Republicans being full of shit in their assertion that their economic stimulus plan would create twice the jobs at half the cost of President Obama's plan? Well they based their findings on a paper by Christina Romer, the newly confirmed Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Well Romer has her own ideas about the House GOP plan. Lets all say it together now, EPIC FAIL!

Question: The House claims that based on the research of CEA Chair Christy Romer, their plan would create 6.2 million jobs. Isn’t that a more effective way of jumpstarting the economy?

Answer: The Republican House analysis is flat wrong in its claim that the House Republican stimulus is more effective. No matter what your analytical assumptions, as long as they are consistent the plan the President supports would result in substantially greater job creation than the House Republican plan.

Independent groups that have analyzed the President’s plan -- from Macroeconomic Advisors to former McCain advisor Mark Zandi -- have confirmed that the President’s plan will create between 3 - 4 million jobs--twice the number of the House plan. The President supports takes a broad, comprehensive approach. It includes substantial tax cuts – many of which mirror the provisions in the House Republican plan. But it also includes new spending programs that many economists across the spectrum believe will help create jobs and give our economy a kickstart right now.

Question: But doesn’t Dr. Romer’s research show that the economic impact of tax cuts is higher than even the Administration is assuming?

Answer: Dr. Romer’s research suggests that all types of fiscal stimulus, both spending and tax cuts, might well have a larger impact than is typically assumed and is assumed in the CEA's analysis. It would be great if that were so. It would mean more job creation and more economic activity -- which is exactly what we need right now. The Administration has based its analyses on more modest assumptions that are in line with those several independent forecasters – Republican and Democrat alike.

We should have an open discussion about these analytical issues.

We cannot afford to play political games with apples-to-oranges comparisons. Such political gamesw distract our attention from the magnitude of the substantive task at hand.

If you still believe anything those asshole Republicans in Congress say then you need to do some serious self examination.

Liberal And Progressive Concerns.

Many of the talking head crowd are convinced and are trying to convince everyone else that those Dirty Fucking Hippies running both houses of Congress are just out to promote "welfare spending" and the own "pet projects" in the new economic stimulus and reinvestment bill. The Villagers are now clamoring for President Obama to admonish his Democratic colleagues and take the "librul" packages out of te bill. And in the meantime they try to portray the liberal and progressive rank and file as being upset over losing out on our "socialist agenda". But today in his column in his Washington Post article E. J. Dionne pushes back on all of this nonsense and pulls the veil back on what is really going on here, namely the Republicans are simply using this meme of "bipartisanship" to try to remove elements of the stimulus bill that President Obama actually campaigned on. But the end of piece to me really is the most important part because he goes through and illuminates the true concerns of the base of the Democratic party that actually voted for change on Nov 4th of last year.

The real test is whether Obama will fight for a stimulus bill that achieves some of his larger objectives. The aspects of the House bill that Republicans and conservative commentators have so eviscerated are the very ones that take substantial steps toward the president's own priorities.

Obama placed a heavy bet during his campaign on a promise to reform the heath-care system. To the great consternation of conservatives, the House stimulus bill takes big steps toward broadening the number of Americans government would help to obtain health insurance. Will those provisions be protected in the final bill?

The president has spoken passionately about the inadequacy of our schools and the increasing difficulty that young Americans are having paying for higher education. The House stimulus bill includes a lot of education money. Will students be thrown overboard in pursuit of a nebulous cross-party comity?

Those are exactly the questions you will see being asked all around the liberal/progressive blogosphere. We don't have a problem with President Obama extending his hand in the spirit of bipartisanship but at what cost? If the end result of this round of bipartisanship is a watered down bill that doesn't stimulate the economy and doesn't help people who are losing their jobs and their houses everyday then what will he really have to show for it? Any effort to stimulate the economy will have to also backstop the people are getting hit the hardest right now. Otherwise no matter how many tax cuts you include or spending for infrastructure you will continue to have the foreclosure crisis which is the nexus of the problems in the economy and you will still have a downturn in consumer spending which is one of the major factor driving the job losses.

If this bill doesn't work it won't matter how many Republicans voted for it. The failure will be laid at the feet of the Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and probably most of all at the feet of President Obama. What we need right now as President Obama has said many times is a focus on doing what works. And if the Republicans are going to refuse to vote for a bill that works its time to drop the bipartisanship act and tell them to fuck off. I would rather have a partisan bill that gets the economy going and helps regular people than a bipartisan bill that is an EPIC FAIL and helps to sweep the Rethugs back into office.