Robert Reich: Freezing Domestic Programs Doesn't Make Much Sense
Well it looks like Robert Reich isn't too thrilled about the President's latest proposal to freeze spending on domestic programs either. Ron Paul thinks it's not going to go anywhere in the Congress and from what I've read so far he's likely right. As Reich noted, when the economy is headed for the tank the government needs to act and is the purchaser of last resort. Sadly as so many have noted like Paul Krugman, we've gotten nothing but a weak stimulus bill that really didn't do enough to get us back on the road to recovery. I don't know how much worse the economy has got to get before someone in Washington decides to start taking the problem seriously.
When I hear more than talk about reigning in Wall Street and some regulation passed and the repeal of our crappy trade laws, I'll start to believe that our leaders in Washington are actually concerned about us not turning into a Banana Republic some time in the near future. Talk is cheap folks. We need some action.
KING: Before we get into the stimulus project, as promised, CNN's Ed Henry reports tonight that President Obama is set to announce a three-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending. That move would freeze discretionary spending at 447 billion dollars.
Joining us now to talk about that and to debate the stimulus and whether it is actually working, Robert Reich -- he was secretary of labor in the Clinton administration and now professor of public policy, University of California Berkeley. His most recent book is "Super Capitalism." And Representative Ron Paul of Texas, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Joint Economic Committee. He's the author of "End of the Fed."
What do you make -- we'll start with you Robert -- of the freezing of domestic programs for three years?
REICH: I don't think it makes much sense, Larry. I'll tell you why. The government, under the circumstances we now face, is the purchaser of last resort. Consumers are not buying. They're still scared for good reason. Businesses are not investing very much. They don't want to invest if they're not consumers out there.
So government has to spend. This is something that a lot of people have difficulty understanding, because you don't want bigger deficits in the long term. But in the short-term government has to spend more to get the economy moving, to get jobs, so people can actually work and generate a larger economy and therefore get the outside budget, the long-term budget down.
Having a freeze right now on discretionary spending, and effectively saying to the world, to Wall Street, to the country, we're not doing any more deficit spending, makes absolutely no sense.
KING: All right. Congressman Paul, your thoughts?
PAUL: Well, I don't think Mr. Reich has too much to worry about. Nothing is going to be frozen in Washington, DC. As a matter of fact, even what Obama is saying is not going into effect for a year, and the Congress won't let it happen.
I think Mr. Reich's sentiments are well represented in Washington. -- because I actually want to see more money spent, not less. It's just that who has the discretion to spend it? That's the issue. When the government spends it, they mal-invest, they misdirect it. They can't correct capital directly.
We don't have our problem because there's not enough consumption or spending. We have too much. We borrowed. We're in debt. So that is not going to solve the problem. What we should have done is maybe suspend the income tax for three years. It would have cost us less than bailing out the big banks and the special interests. They've been more money -- then the people could make a decision on whether they should liquidate their debt and how they would invest. This would be a wiser choice.
REICH: Larry, let me agree --
KING: Address the stimulus. Do that quickly, Robert.
REICH: I just want to agree with the congressman on one point. That is bailing out the big banks instead of helping main street was a version of trickle down economics, and it doesn't work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk
Cuz, Paul Krugman thinks it's a load of crap, too:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/o...
Plus
McCain suggested this back during the election, and Obama told him off......
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/candidate-obama-c...
I wonder who O is working for?
Certainly not the left.
Why, Obama, of course - just like any other flim-flam man. (And I use the term 'man' loosely.)
I think it's obvious that he will do or say anything to improve his personal lot. Say one thing to get liberal support - but act like a conservative and get in tight(er) with Wall Street, big business, the Pentagon/MIC... Give trillions to Wall Street (where the power lies), but be a fiscal conservative when it comes to Main Street. Talk peace (and get a Nobel Peace Prize?!), but expand US war-making.
Then again, that's exactly what he was doing before and during the campaign.
Hey, i have an idea, it isn't much but every little bit helps, let's get rid of the Congressional health plan and let them go out into the open market like the rest of us, esp. since they seem to know expensive it is to provide health to people.
up their price to the lobbyists for their vote.
I posted earlier spending freeze is nothing more than a token amount. The linked chart below shows the government's own projections of its spending as a percentage of GDP. Discretionary spending is shown in the beige section of the bar. As you can see, freezing discretionary spending will do very little to reduce overall spending.
Government spending and revenue as a percent of GDP
The interest on the debt dwarfs all else.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
You want to cut the deficit and free up money to actually help people? Slash the bloated and extravagantly wasteful defense budget. If we cut it by 2/3 it would still be larger than anyone else in the world by a large margin. Very little of that actually goes to supporting the troops or the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, most going to develop grotesquely expensive weapons systems we are unlikely to ever use.
on the national debt.
Since 2001 we paid have paid nearly $3.4 trillion on interest alone to date. Compare that to what we have spent on the war effort at $950 billion since 2001.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Robert Reich is a good man , never paid much attention to him before but read his blog these days and the guy is right on in my HUMBLE opinion , LOL . I'm beginning to think Obama and company much like the Democratic party itself , don't know what the F they are doing . The Repugs are sheer evil but they definitely know what they are doing and if anyone steps out of line and doesn't go along with the program they are done . We'll get another speech here pretty quick and I'm sure it'll be a doosie , he'll try and blow more sunshine up our butts but it won't work this time .He is going to have to start walking the talk and stop straddling the fence but he will have to make up his mind who's side he is really on first .Man , Krugman reeeeeeeally doesn't like this .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
americans you are being had
neither party represents you
at least the repubs are honest with their base
they represent the corps and the have mores
the demos are bought and paid for by the same corps as the repubs
they must pretend to represent so called main street but must fold and make it look like they care and worked hard for working americans and are not war mongers like the repubs.
the demos are the worst liars they only pretend to represent their voters.
all must go and the system needs to be changed
capitalism must self destruct the capitalists now have the supreme court in their pockets. pure genius on their part.
the capitalists are ten times smarter than the voters that is why they have most of the wealth of this nation
even to the point of getting bailed out by the taxpayers then giving themsleves huge bonuses. pure genius.
americans you are being used and you think your vote counts.
both parties are corrupt to the core.
the capitalists have even convinced most voters that capitalism and patroitism are synonyms. again pure genius.
coming soon like wed night is another one of those famous speeches
it got him elected now he does not have a clue what to do
he is still playing jr senator from illinois.
the pres job too much for him
he will go down in history as a weak pres like carter but gives better speeches.
at least he is not evil like bush jr or dumb like mc war who crashed more planes in flight school then any other pilot in the history of naval air.
obama is just weak and thinks leader ship is giving good speeches.
when the going gets tough he gives a speech.
Sadly, I can't disagree with a word of what researcher says in these two posts.
received 1% of our entire national GDP as bonuses this year. That's 145bb for the crooks that ran the world into the ground.
Those freezes Obama's going to announce tomorrow aren't going to be taking ANYTHING away from the rich folks, so hold onto your hat - you may end up needing it to panhandle.
Don't worry, the manchurian president is on the case!
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
He's not a mind-controlled tool, he's a fully conscious one. A willing participant, groomed for just this moment in history, to serve his true master's cause. Corporations über alles. Which just got a big boost from the Supreme Court.
When I hear more than talk about reigning in Wall Street and some regulation passed and the repeal of our crappy trade laws, I'll start to believe that our leaders in Washington are actually concerned about us not turning into a Banana Republic some time in the near future.
Aaaah...so it's about actual ACTIONS...not just nice words and little signing petitions that mean absolutely NOTHING...like this one...http://salsa.mydccc.org/o/30019/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4&tag=redirect
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
He's only going to FREEZE those programs the LEAST AMONG US depend on for LIFE. He's going to spend 10 TIMES that to "fast track" the high speed rail so the Wall Streeters and Congress Critters can get quicker access to each other.
"THE AUDACITY OF HYPE" After spending trillions of dollars (current and future taxes to a debt size of $400,000 for every man, woman and child) on bank bail outs and the Pentagon, we're now going to FREEZE spending on all programs that would actually benefit most citizens. The poor paying for the rich. Oh that's going to work.
Do we not remember what brought us out of the last Depression? It was a threat of being taken over by another country. Only when Hitler started threatening to take over the American kingdom from the American kings did they start bailing the country out and ending the "Great Depression".
They've got us right where they want us.
Keynes vs Hayek
instant classic here
What is missing? Karl of course, but then Keynes was intent on covering him up.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
"By Robert Block and Mark K. Matthews
Orlando Sentinel
12:17 a.m. EST, January 27, 2010
NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way.
When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020. The troubled and expensive Ares I rocket that was to replace the space shuttle to ferry humans to space will be gone, along with money for its bigger brother, the Ares V cargo rocket that was to launch the fuel and supplies needed to take humans back to the moon.
There will be no lunar landers, no moon bases, no Constellation program at all.
In their place, according to White House insiders, agency officials, industry executives and congressional sources familiar with Obama's long-awaited plans for the space agency, NASA will look at developing a new "heavy-lift" rocket that one day will take humans and robots to explore beyond low Earth orbit. But that day will be years — possibly even a decade or more — away.
In the meantime, the White House will direct NASA to concentrate on Earth-science projects — principally, researching and monitoring climate change — and on a new technology research and development program that will one day make human exploration of asteroids and the inner solar system possible.
There will also be funding for private companies to develop capsules and rockets that can be used as space taxis to take astronauts on fixed-price contracts to and from the International Space Station — a major change in the way the agency has done business for the past 50 years.
The White House budget request, which is certain to meet fierce resistance in Congress, scraps the Bush administration's Vision for Space Exploration and signals a major reorientation of NASA, especially in the area of human spaceflight.
"We certainly don't need to go back to the moon," said one administration official."
so even though we as a nation are falling behind both technologically, and in spurring young americans to aspire to science related careers the administration decides to axe and privatize yet another of our government's successful organizations. shades of blackwater. i'm amazed, i never thought when voting for obama i was voting for an anti-government conservative in disguise.
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