Four-Eight-Four [dot org]

So, Bushie and Bernie (yes, I’m intentionally being disrespectful, thanks for asking) think that immediate action is necessary for us to “fix” the economy (”Tax Rebates Urged to Rescue Economy“). I’ll agree … they’re correct. Unfortunately, the medicine they’re prescribing isn’t isn’t going to help us dodge the bullet if we follow the doctors’ orders … it’s going to make things worse.

Thus spake Zarathustra Bernanke:

Bernanke voiced his support for a stimulus package in an appearance before the House Budget Committee. He stressed that it must be temporary and must be implemented quickly — so that its economic effects could be felt as much as possible within the next 12 months. “Putting money into the hands of households and firms that would spend it in the near term” is a priority, he said.

Yes, the answer to our problems it to keep spending! Please, people … when the average person in this country is up to their eyeballs in debt, and we’ve got plenty of folks holding on to subprime mortgages they can barely afford, the last thing we need is for them to do anything but take their tax rebate and put it towards paying down their debts. We as a nation just simply cannot go on spending like money grows on trees, or we’ll end up with money that is worth about what money would be worth if it did grow on trees.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chimed in to support things:

“There is reason to be hopeful when the president recognizes there is a problem in the country,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said afterward. She has talked of a package totaling $100 billion or more. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio spoke of a bill on the range of $100-150 billion.

Let’s modify that a bit:

“There is reason to be hopeful when the captain recognizes there is a problem with the ship,” Titanic passenger Joe Cool said afterward.

Hmmmmm.

Fortunately, while pretty much every snake oil salesman in Congress is busily trying to push the others out of the way to cheer for The Annointed One, George Bush and His Great Economic Salvation, there are at least a few voices of reason. Chuck Butler writes in his weekly column (”A Stimulus Package in Our Future?“) in The Daily Reckoning:

The government comes to the aid of this/that/and the other thing, and before you know it, you’ve got a society that can’t do anything for themselves without a helping hand. And once they get this money from the government, they’ll want more. It’s like a drug, folks… And all the while, the government goes deeper and deeper into debt. There’s more on my mind regarding a stimulus package, but I’ll stop here, I’ve made my point.

Now stop. Go back and read that again. And if it doesn’t make sense, keep reading it until it does. The man speaks the truth. We, the people (in general) clamor for the government to do more for us … fix this, rebuild that, upgrade this, give us cheap medical care, give us affordable water, etc., etc., etc. The money has to come from somewhere. We squeal like stuck pigs when the government wants to cut anything back … seriously, look at the noise we already have about the impending collapse of Social Security. So, if we keep spending like there’s no tomorrow, but we’re going to cut taxes and bring in less income to cover the budget … where is this going to come from?

Think about that for a while.