Either way, it's a mirage
As they debate ways to improve the economy, Obama and Congress are acting like two lost souls staggering through the desert, arguing over the height of palm trees in a far off mirage.
On one hand, it's an argument over whether $10 billion or $30 billion worth of energy tax breaks must be included in a stimulus package. On the other hand, it's an argument over whether the lush palm tree are 10 feet or 30 feet tall.
In both cases, the stated ends are an illusion -- an improved economy through the printing press or shade and water under the swaying palms.
For the latter, dehydration is the issue. For the former, it's delusion.
Comments (10)
Tony Brown
Reminds me of the story about a blind skunk who fell in love with a fart!
Published: January 11, 2009 12:23 AM
Joe
This isn't only a mirage. It is full of too much hype and hope as well. Obama and Congress can banter back and forth about where to cut taxes and that sounds great when it is presented to the public. However I think they seriously need to ponder if this plan will actually work as they intend it to. For example, if much of this stimulus goes into improving infrastructure (I.E. roads, bridges, etc.) on a national scale then would it not be safe to assume that additional funding and time would also have to be allotted for re-training? I mean, let us face it, much of America today is not geared towards the manual labor, blue collar type of work that may be needed to carry out such an endeavor. This “New Deal”, as some have called it faces a vastly different type of American skilled worker than the citizens FDR faced when he first purposed his “New Deal”. That will have to be accounted for in my opinion.
Furthermore, it is well known that Government is grossly inefficient and wasteful. Therefore, I see no reason why this stimulus will prove to be any different than previous efforts. I think people are putting too much faith in this Government and the Federal Reserve to fix a problem that they are largely responsible for creating in the first place.
Published: January 11, 2009 4:31 AM
Steve Hogan
Joe,
You're looking at this all wrong. The key is not for the state to actually stimulate genuine economic activity; it's goal is simply to appear to be "doing something." Fool the rubes in flyover country into thinking that their leaders are in control and know what they're doing. When the inevitable failures are revealed later on, the propaganda machine will pull a bait and switch, blaming the fiasco on greedy speculators, the rich, or laughably...the free market!
A case in point: The New Deal. Any objective analysis of the 1930's would conclude that everything FDR did was economically counterproductive. He excoriated Hoover for his profligate ways and stupid interventions during the campaign, then succeeded in extending Hoover's policies once in office.
Did it matter that he prolonged and deepened what should have been a relatively routine correction? Not to the court historians and intellectual apologists. To this day they continue to proclaim that FDR got us out of the depression. Even those who recognize his obvious failures, they state that Roosevelt gave Americans hope, whatever that means.
I think we're in for more of the same with Obama and his team of central planners. They'll frantically pull levers and push buttons in the silly hope that something positive will occur. It makes one pine for the glory days of the Clinton regime and its sordid scandals.
Published: January 11, 2009 12:16 PM
Christopher Hightower
"The State" is always doing something, and that is precisely the problem.
With government attempted to spend, spend, spend out of the economic crisis, blindly ignoring the facts of the New Deal. I find solace in this statement:
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work... I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started. And enormous debt to boot."
(The failure of New Deal spending to create jobs was summarized by Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Roosevelt's own Treasury Secretary:)
Published: January 11, 2009 2:53 PM
David Spellman
This is how political partisanship works--both sides are agreed on the direction to head, but make a show of arguing over details. The real debate about the correct plan of action is suppressed at all costs lest the rent seekers and authoritarians be overthrown.
As I have said before, the genius of American Fascism is that there is the illusion of two competing parties rather than a single party dictatorship. Autocrats in all ages have done well to give the peasants the illusion of having a voice in how they are governed, or at least beheading a few unpopular lieutenants to placate the people.
Published: January 11, 2009 4:23 PM
Brian Macker
"Fool the rubes in flyover country ..."
I'm guessing the proportion and quantity of people fooled by this is larger on the coasts. Voting patterns tend to show larger support for the party that believes in government "doing something" to be the coasts.
Published: January 11, 2009 4:34 PM
Bruce Koerber
January 11, 2009
President And Congress Are Mirages In A Desert Of Civilization.
The true mirages are the Congress and the President! Neither exist!
What exists is an unConstitutional coup with its 'palm tree' figments appearing before the eyes of the lost wanderers in the 'desert of civilization.' These parched and delusional travelers look out and see two palm trees and are irresistably drawn towards the palm trees.
Unaided, there are two outcomes: 1). total exhaustion and death in the wasteland of war and counterfeiting, or 2). attainment of the oasis and then mandatory surrendering of oneself as a prisoner to the tyrant (like already done by main stream media).
But you do not necessarily have to fear, nor be unaided. There is a storm brewing and the jet streams around the world are rearranging. Places that have been devoid of the revitalizing rains are no longer outside the favorable patterns of weather. There is an ideological change that is altering the climatic conditions for all of humanity. Classical liberalism carries with it generous and bountiful amounts of the life-giving water of prosperity and their educating showers will clear the atmosphere of the illusionary dusts required by the ego-driven interventionists for their mirages.
Soon some of the brave, enslaved media will courageously flee back into the wilderness and find it now verdant. Recharged and with a newfound conviction they will direct their energies towards helping the cause of liberty and honoring private property.
Meanwhile the unConstitutional coup will begin to squirm and wiggle in its own quicksand!
Published: January 11, 2009 9:02 PM
Bruce Koerber
January 11, 2009
President And Congress Are Mirages In A Desert Of Civilization.
The true mirages are the Congress and the President! Neither exist!
What exists is an unConstitutional coup with its 'palm tree' figments appearing before the eyes of the lost wanderers in the 'desert of civilization.' These parched and delusional travelers look out and see two palm trees and are irresistably drawn towards the palm trees.
Unaided, there are two outcomes: 1). total exhaustion and death in the wasteland of war and counterfeiting, or 2). attainment of the oasis and then mandatory surrendering of oneself as a prisoner to the tyrant (like already done by main stream media).
But you do not necessarily have to fear, nor be unaided. There is a storm brewing and the jet streams around the world are rearranging. Places that have been devoid of the revitalizing rains are no longer outside the favorable patterns of weather. There is an ideological change that is altering the climatic conditions for all of humanity. Classical liberalism carries with it generous and bountiful amounts of the life-giving water of prosperity and their educating showers will clear the atmosphere of the illusionary dusts required by the ego-driven interventionists for their mirages.
Soon some of the brave, enslaved media will courageously flee back into the wilderness and find it now verdant. Recharged and with a newfound conviction they will direct their energies towards helping the cause of liberty and honoring private property.
Meanwhile the unConstitutional coup will begin to squirm and wiggle in its own quicksand!
Published: January 11, 2009 9:05 PM
Enjoy Every Sandwich
I'm not sure that fooling the rubes in flyover country is the number one priority. Like Brian Macker, I'm inclined to see the intellectual rubes on the coasts as the main target.
One of the reasons I see it that way is my memory of a history class project back when I was in high school. The assignment was to interview relatives who had experienced the Great Depression. My parents and their siblings all went through it. Every time I brought up FDR and the New Deal the response was mocking laughter. I still remember my Uncle Ross dryly referring to the WPA as "men getting paid to lean on shovels".
It was an eye-opening experience for me, who of course had been taught in the government school to revere the great FDR and his glorious New Deal.
Published: January 12, 2009 8:37 AM
Glen
Makes me think of the prisoner who avoided the death penalty by promising to teach the king's horse to sing.
Published: January 12, 2009 11:29 AM