We’ve had 8 years of your way or the highway. And we are now up to our necks in alligators. Your way produced net zero jobs. Your way produced net zero increase in living standards. Your way produced a bankrupt auto industry, a financial sector that had to be rescued by the United States Government. Your way has been tested and it failed — just like Marxism was tested and failed. It didn’t work.

Now we are trying to fix the mess your party got us into.

We face zero threat of inflation at this point. We have close to 8% unemployment and the odds are that that will continue to rise for some time. When 8 to 10% of the population is out of work inflation ain’t really the major concern. We’re looking at deflation which is to inflation what cancer is to pneumonia.

I wish we didn’t have to do this. I wish we were not in this shit. I wish I wasn’t passing this along to my children. I wish I wasn’t screwing up their future. I wish we still had Mr. Clinton’s surplus. But we elected Republicans. So here we are.

Can we save on governmental overhead and just have helicoptors drop the billions on to us. Won’t that “stimulate”!

What is important is not your quasi-religious faith in Republican dogma. What’s important is what will work. Will giving a tax break to well-off people work? No.

And while you may be an ideal boss, most people aren’t. Most bosses obey the logic of the marketplace which holds that you shed employees you don’t need. You’re arguing simultaneously that the marketplace is sacred and that you will ignore it.

I don’t complain about unemployment benefits because they are stimulus, giving money to people who need it and will immediately spend it. I don’t complain about infrastructure because it will create jobs and not only will those salaries be spent, but the projects themselves provide benefit.

Bi-partisanship isn’t about creating bills that are 50% smart and 50% stupid. We’re trying to push money into the economy and get some side benefit off improving infrastructure. That makes sense. Giving money to people who won’t push it back into the economy is stupid.

Most people however are in the position you used to be. If they are allowed to keep more of their hard earned money, they will probably spend most of it. And if they chose to save some, good for them.

I own a small business. Most small businesses are run like extensions of family. Laying off employees is the last thing they want to do. Cash flow is always critical. I can tell you for sure a tax cut could very possibly save a job at my business.

Yes indeed I am idealogical. The principal that the individual who has earned his money can and should determine how to spend it and will do a better job of spending it than the government is definitely idealogical, at least to you. To me it is just natural.

I noticed you didn’t complain about the 30% for unemployment benefit extension or the same for real infrastructure jobs, so it seems under my proposal you get 60% of what you want and I get 40% of what I want. That isn’t good enough for you (and your great leader)?
Where’s your spirit of bi-partisanship?

I pay a lot of taxes. If you give me a tax cut I will put the money in cash and hold onto it because 1) I don’t need to spend that money and 2) I don’t see an investment I want to jump in on just yet. Way down the road I’ll probably buy a new house, but not any time soon, my friend. So net benefit to me? Plenty. Net benefit to the economy? Zip. Jobs created? None.

But back in the day I was a struggling working stiff. If you had given me $1000 I’d have had no choice but to spend it because I had huge pent-up demand for goods and services. That $1000 would have barely felt the touch of my fingers before it went flying back out the door.

If you cut taxes on business they will behave exactly as I would: they would hold onto the cash. They will not keep on employees who they don’t need, they’d still let them go because that would make business sense. Net benefit to the business owner? Plenty. Net benefit to the larger economy? Minimal.

Stop looking at the world through the assumptions of ideology. People don’t act ideologically, they act in what they perceive to be their own best interests. I can tell you with absolute certainty that any tax cut you give me now will not see the light of day outside of a T-Bill.

If you want to cut taxes, stop collecting payroll tax on people making under 40k. Every penny will go straight back into the economy.

Republicans need to keep far, far away from this disaster unless it improves dramatically–if that is even possible. While this indicates more temporary job creation than people like my best friend expect, the report is totally toxic.

The irony is that even the temporary jobs created by the ridiculous spending will be nowhere near 3 or 4 million. A Keynesian economics professor of some repute who happens to be my best friend is upset with that aspect of the stimulus package. This is a guy who voted for Obama and supports him in general, mind you.

So although as you suggested the temporary make work is the easy part, even that is woefully inadequate from the perspective of left-leaning economists. I suspect we will hear a helluva lot more about the “jobs saved” claim, which cannot be proved one way or another, is this monstrosity becomes law.

If Obama were as smart as I once thought, he would have moved away from this abortion several days ago.

There is no immediate fix for housing. As inventories slowly diminish, housing will come back. Allowing people to keep more of what they produce will help them to save for downpayments.

With this formula you cover human suffering, put money in peoples hands to spend immediately, help small business to maintain their current employees, and create jobs with long lasting benefits for our country.

Eliminate everything else from the bill. That is bi-partisan. What we have now is bullshit.