NEWS: Obama Opens A Can of Stupid

POLITICS: Obama Opens A Can of Stupid

Obama is going with tax cuts. Well, that didn’t take long. Obama’s already working his compromise promise –– except right now compromise on the economy could send us spiraling into a depression, if we aren’t already there. Remember all those tax cuts under Bush? Didn’t everything turn out awesome? Did you spend, spend, spend your six hundred dollars last year? Cram that shit back into the economy and get it rolling again? How did that go? Now Obama’s going to compromise on his stimulus package and instead of spending 100% on infrastructure, he’s going to give 40% back in tax cuts. That leaves 60% for infrastructure. Fail.

I know, Obama promised we’d get tax cuts. And that’s fine –– just not at the expense of public investment stimulus plan. We need to stop the hemorrhaging of jobs now. Actually, yesterday. We need to invest in our infrastructure immediately. Compromising with the ideologically driven Republicans who got us into this mess is not the way to go. Compromising to the tune of 40% is just plain moronic.

We are sitting on the edge of a cliff right now. We need to go with what will give us the biggest bang for our buck and it turns out infrastructure spending is top o’the list.



Hey, look at that. Oh, and that chart was created by Mark Zandi, a Republican.

Obama wants to get 80 Senators on board for his stimulus plan. 80. That’s beyond compromise, especially when you control the Senate by a wide margin. This is half-assed leadership. This is weak leadership. This is not impressive.

Well, thank God. I mean, they got us here, so let’s keep doing what they want. This 40% plan is BEFORE Obama has worked with the Republicans. He is going in offering 40%. Has anyone seen the Republicans operate over the past 20 years? Anyone? Usually one would start out low and negotiate from there. I expect this to end up with around 99% tax cuts, based on Democratic spinelessness. It’s exactly what we can’t afford right now.

So, that’s not good. Not good at all. We need jobs. Tax cuts to businesses trying to survive aren’t going to produce jobs. It may keep some more people employed, but it won’t create new jobs. Not in this economy. Giving businesses money to rebuild the infrastructure would create new jobs. But, no, let’s go with more discredited, obviously wrong, eternally failing, supply side economics.

The Bush economy, with these types of tax cuts created a 26% increase in Americans living in “extreme poverty.”

Twenty-six fucking percent. So, by all means, more of the same.

Giving money to people without pricing power is useless. The middle class and upper class are holding onto their money right now. They will do the same with the bullshit $500 dollar check they get. But they are only $140 million of the tax cut, the rest goes to businesses. Businesses aren’t going to create new jobs if there isn’t any demand for their fucking products. What retard actually believes that is going to happen?

Anyone notice what went down when we gave billions to the banking industry over the past few months? They laid people off and bought up competitors –– then laid off those employees. Wow, what an enormous success.

God forbid we actually use the stimulus money to rebuild our country. Hey, how about we increase our Internet speeds so we aren’t 10 times slower than everyone else in the world? How about some high-speed trains? How about more subways and light rails in cities? Anyone notice traffic is bad? That kind of effects business a bit. How about we do something about the nations electrical grid? Our country needs a massive overhaul and now is the time to do it. And guess what? We can actually put people back to work at the same time.

Or we can just hand people a check and keep doing exactly what we did to get us here. We can ignore the fact that our economy hasn’t been working for quite some time for the vast majority of Americans. We can ignore the fact that the FIRE economy is pretty much a massive failure and avoid the inevitable: A complete and total restructuring of our economy. We can keep giving away tax cuts, so people will spend money the same way they have been and keep going down this dark road of doom.

We’ve basically tax cutted ourselves into a depression, so why stop now. We’re not getting any return on our tax cuts and haven’t been for quite some time. Obama calling for 40% of his stimulus plan is a disaster.

The new boss is giving in to the pathetic old boss.


FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for more from FearTheReaper and read his blog, Stop All Monsters.

So people keeping more of their hard-earned money is a bad thing? We need to abolish the IRS and institute a flat tax thats like a national sales tax.. say 15%. Now that's fair and would really get this economy going.

Read a book, sometime.

this article upsets me in that it confirms the fears that I was thinking about when I saw the televised coverage of Obama's stimulus plan. I've been an Obama supporter thru the whole struggle but if these stats and figures are correct I have to agree that this means more lay offs, less stability in the economy and no i didn't use my stimulus check last year for "goods"; I used it to pay off credit card debt...

Killer: It would be fair, if everybody earned the same money.
Or if housing and food costs would be proportional to earned money.
Neither is, thus a flat tax is a bad idea.


And yes, people keeping money is a bad thing, no matter how it is earned.
Oh and I know, I'm sounding socialistic again but it is not really the people's money that should be taxed heavier or less heavy, it's the companies' money.
You know, that money, that shareholders get for the "hard, hard work" of owning stocks.


FTR: Infrastructure and, in the case of the USA, mass transit is a good point.
I think, even more important is education but the bad part there is, that the result takes a few years to show itself (thus, no honor for the politicans that started it).
But what I really wonders is, why there is no talk about how much goes into healthcare. Wasn't that one of Obamas biggest points? They can use it good and I can clearly imagine, that the average nurse is spending the bonus money again as she gets it, so the money counts twice.

I agree with you on the infrastructure side of things, it would definitely be nice to catch up to 1999 technology wise.

But as a small business owner, tax-cuts are going to help me. I am at the tipping point of trying to decide whether to keep at it and keep dumping money into a business that has slowed to a crawl or just throw the towel in. If anything the tax-cuts will delay me making that decision and keep the budget a little bit more fluid for a few months, hopefully in that time the economy turns around. I may receive a tax-cut, but it definitely doesn't mean i am going to go on a hiring spree, it just means i will have more money for operating costs to maintain my business. So you're basically right, it's not going to induce growth.

People who have been pencil pushers and paper shufflers their whole career can't tie rebar and pour concrete.

This, however, typically is a question of willingness as opposed to ability to learn a new skill.

^^^Exactly, just ask Peter Gibbons, he didn't feel like filing TPS reports when he was working at Initech. In fact he didn't feel like working at all 'till he got a jackhammer to clear the rubble after the building was burned down. He didn't think it was so bad...

I'll be for a flat tax when everyone receives the same amount of pay, enough to live a healthy and comfortable life with plenty of room to spare. Until then, it ain't going to happen.

nonsense, bean. politics is about cutting off your nose to spite your face. this Obama guy, i dunno what he's about!

And people who have been pouring concrete and tying rebar their whole career can't push papers and shuffle pencils. What's yr point?

Thank you. Although I, personally, want to see an eventual roll back of the tax cuts for the upper crust in America, I'm also the first to admit that politics is the arena of compromise. If one is unwilling or unable to compromise, then they simply will be unable to get anything passed. If tax cuts are the magic bullet that convinces members of the Republican party to go along with the rest of Obama's program, then so be it.
Also, and this is another important consideration, if Obama comes out as willing to accommodate the Republican minority now, at the beginning of his presidency, and they still spit in his face, it gives him justification for steam rolling them later on, as well as painting them as obstructionist and unwilling to do what's best for America. This can then be a big stick that the Democrats can wield in the 2010 midterms and the eventual reelection campaign in 2012.

Since the Democrats control the White House and Congress they don't need Republican support and won't get it regardless what Obama does.

My point would be that neither one of you is right.

The last thing anybody should be doing in the current economy/job marketplace situation is saying "well, I can't do that so I'll just CRY."

i agree. there are things i think people can do to help themselves. i think the government has a responsibility to try to fix things--but i'm not sure it can, and i certainly don't think it can do so without more people taking greater control of their financial future.

why did I have Michael Cane's voice-over saying, "and in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand..." as I read this article? lulz.

*IMO* tax cuts aren't the answer right now but with that being said i don't think taxes will have much impact on jobs anyways. the problems here in the states with the job market stems from several failed policies and the plague of greed that fueled them. increasing the amount of money we dump into Gov't jobs or programs help kill private interprise yet provide many of the programs and services we need and sometimes to for granted.

we cant rely on gov't to do everything for us yet we don't know how to make a change because we're all too busy being slaves to the credit monsters or they've got us too busy debating over wether or not homosexuality is wrong or right, hence distracting us from are civic responsibilities of holding our elected represenatives accountable for the decisions they make.

I'm all for paying taxes but its a gimmick because where all the money goes. Quid pro quo or however you spell it. i think Ron Paul was the real change we needed but he was never taken seriously because he was brutally honest about his ideas and that scared his peers and was consistently lauged off the stages of debates. I voted for Obama because it came down to the two candidates the media gave us to choose from. he was the better choice but he's got to weather a shit storm and all of his ideas won't work because of the obstacles in his way.

OUR COUNTRY should've never did this bail out bullshit package. If you open a deli and bust your ass and go belly up, tax payers aren't gonna bail you out and shouldn't. thats how it works, or should anyways. this bail out bullshit just reinforces the greedy, shady, and just flat out irresponsible business models these corporations follow.

We ALL, must now regroup, take a step back and look at ourselves and figure out what we've been doing wrong as a people. i think at the root of all of our problems is Greed. Greed in our buying habits, working habits, and greed that breeds corruption in all aspects of politics and or business practices.
my two pennis
ryan

the problem with that metaphor is that if your deli goes belly-up, you won't take the economy of your entire city with you. the bailouts are ugly, but they're necessary in order to allow most of the country to maintain something resembling their current standard of living. that said, the bailouts should not simply be free money--they need to come with solid regulations that won't allow this sort of thing to happen again.

ummm let me just say this...

what does it matter? will complaining change this process? no. will obama read this? no. if he did would it matter? no. if voting and having an opinion mattered, it would be illegal. the people of the world are going to destroy each other. it is inevitable. so instead of taking lots of time out of your day to wonder and think and complain about shit thats not gonna change shit, go hit your girlfriends crack from the back while you still have a life, a paycheck and a house to live in.

and i don't have to be intellectual. i'm a realist. life is shitty. suck it up.

If you're right, there's no point listening to you.
If you're wrong, why would anyone bother listening to you?

Wasting more than a hundred billion dollars on failed supply side economic policies is more than "bending an iota."The Democrats have a solid majority and mandate to stop these failed economic policies and it's time they do it.

Assuming the graph in the article is spot on, I would be overjoyed if 100% of the proposed $775 billion went to food stamps, unemployment benefits and infrastructure (the top 3 bang-for-the-buck areas of expenditure).

Having been unemployed since September, in a town where not even a gas station will look at my application among 100 others, I would much rather know that my unemployment benefits could be extended than to get another $600 check.

Also, the price of food in America over the past year has risen quite a bit more than the additional food stamp benefits. I've mostly been living off beans and rice for 3 months now and my food stamps still only last me until the 20th of the month.