Ron Paul Is A Dope

So are his libertarian/free market pals.

A moment ago I finished watching the latest Real Time with Bill Maher.* Like his cohorts in delusion, Paul maintains we should let the banks go bankrupt. End "corporate" welfare. Prevent passing the bailout/StimPak^TM cost onto "future generations." This one I like the best -- exercise even less government oversight & regulation. In brief, blow up our whole economic model.

In a year somehow the US economy will magically right itself. The rest of the world will be either unaffected or greatly changed for the better.

Yeah, right. I won't waste time arguing this dogma's abject stupidity. However, they completely whiff on several assured major repercussions. Not the least of these is the libertarian/free marketeers operate as if forced bankruptcies of Citibank, Bank of America, etc., will be a free ride. They forget about the lil' thing called the FDIC. We've just never had to use it.

Once the banks go bankrupt, taking the money of depositors with them, the Federal Government has insured, has guaranteed, a huge chunk of our cash. FDIC is bound to pay as much as $100,000 for all deposits except retirement accounts i.e. IRAs which are insured up to $250,000. Anything over those amount is gone. Effectively removed from our economy.

Under Ron Paul's criteria is this not another form of "welfare"? Where would the money come from? Does Ron Paul believe this FDIC bill wouldn't be passed on to "future generations"?

Further proof Libertarianism is stupid and a reliably unrealistic posture. There's little or no chance their ideology will ever be employed wholesale. As such it affords them the ultimate out. It's not their fault when "it" doesn't work. When "it" does work they carp on and on about how it would work much better if only we'd only listen to them.

-AF
*Standby for a whole heap of They Said It I Repeat Its.

Rising GOP Star Bobby Jindal's Mouth

Writes check his ass will will regret. This would have been a true test of Bobby Jindal's mettle. Sadly for him, he's painted himself into a corner with no good way out.

If he rejects StimPack cash, Jindal will garner praise from GOP hard-line fiscal conservative types nation-wide. However, the clash of naked Presidential ambition vs. his resposibility as governor of Louisiana will open him wide up to attacks from all other sides.

How on earth does Bobby-Boy gonna justify turning down StimPack monies? LA was already struggling mightily before our national economic crisis. So if/when he caves and accepts that sweet, sweet StimPack cash, Jindal will look like a flat-out pussy. Whatever his decision, you can count on it being used against him in the 2012 GOP Presidential debates.

A more seasoned politico would have waited to get a better read on the lay of the land before spouting off. Once he was picked to respond to Obama's address, Jindal just couldn't keep his trap shut.

-AF
**Update 02/18/09: More GOP govs whining whining over the prospect of receiving StimPak^TM cash.

Lie. Obstruct. Lie. Repeat.

Special Bonus Double-Edition:

"What's In A Promise?"

Earlier this month Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell promised not to filibuster the stimulus package. On NPR this week uber-conservative crank Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) promised a filibuster. Not to be outdone McConnell's #2, Senate Minority Whip/uber-conservative crank Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), is mustering the troops for some filibuster fun. Think Progress has the skinny.

"Your Mind Is On Vacation
(But Your Mouth Is Working Overtime)"*

For all their whining and bitching about lowering taxes and creating jobs, House Republicans' slapped together Stimulus Plan not only could raise taxes but also used some crazy-assed calculations to contrive their job numbers.

-AF
*Gotta love Mose Allison.

They Said It. I Repeat It.

The GOP vs. the stimulus package, pt. 2:

"I think they had pretty good talking points initially on some of these spending issues and look they got the President to knock down a couple of them on the National Mall, on contraceptives as well. So they had some tactical skirmishes that they won. But what you see at the end of it is a party that is struggling for definition and direction. And without clear leadership, some of them are going in one ideological direction and others are just looking after their own skins and their own district.

There are confident predictions inside The White House not just that they will pick up votes in the Senate, but you’re going to see Republicans in the House voting for this final package when it comes back to them. In other words, there a going to be Republicans out there who say they voted against it before they voted for it."

Richard Wolffe/Newsweek
Countdown with Keith Olbermann 01-28-09

This first big test of the "new" GOP is gonna be pass/fail. Stay tuned...

-AF

They Said It. I Repeat It.

There are many people in The White House who think that Republicans opposing a popular President and a popular spending package are effectively driving themselves off a cliff.

Richard Wolffe/Newsweek
Countdown with Keith Olbermann - 01-28-09

Lie. Obstruct. Lie. Repeat.

When they're not obstructin', they're a lyin'...House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) can't stop lying about the CBO's non-partisan stimulus package eval (CBO stuff here & here). He did it last week. Cantor's at it again this week even though the target of his original lie has been removed.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) is dutifully following misguided Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) into the abyss. From the AP:

Hours earlier, according to officials who were present at a GOP meeting, none of the Republicans in attendance spoke up in disagreement when urged to oppose the legislation by their leaders. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the party's leader, and Eric Cantor of Virginia, the second in command, said they wanted "100 percent" opposition to the measure, which they argue includes billions in wasteful spending, these officials said.

Good luck with that. We are hemorrhaging jobs, small businesses are dropping faster than flies, homes are being ditched/foreclosed at an unprecedented rate, Wall Street is an absolute catastrophe and we haven't even seen the beginning of the end of this mayhem! Really. We haven't.

Over the past eight years the GOP has exposed itself as an unmitigated fraud. If Boehner & co. are convinced that these methods will be an effective way to rebuild the Republican Party, they've got another thing coming. I'm wicked cynical but I'm certain America won't stand for this. The 2010 Congressional elections will bear me out. So keep up the good work fellas.

It's not like our very nation's at stake or anything.

-AF

Funny How Loser's Good Ideas Suddenly Become Winner's Bad Ones

McCain was the top sponsor of 2005's The Community Broadband Act. A program to give tax breaks to companies increasing broadband access to rural communities was the nucleus of his 2008 Presidential campaign's technology platform. McCain now sez it's a wasteful part of the stimulus package since it "will take years."

It's a bad idea now only because McCain is unable to take credit for it & he has nothing to gain from its passage.

-AF