800 Billion Isn’t Enough

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 11:56 pm

Read About Ivanka Trump's Plotting To Return To The White House On THE DAILY

This stimulus plan needs to be “50% bigger … around 1.2 trillion instead of 800 billion,” Nobel Prize winning economist, and New York Times contributing writer, Paul Krugman said in a BBC News segment.

He makes an interesting case for the shakers in government to quit nitpicking and stroking their IDs, their egos, and send more “aide to states, education, and healthcare … instead of waiting for a trickle effect.”

And he’s right. Investing in state infrastructure will create immediate jobs. Reinvesting in the people via tax refunds is great, but not the quickest fix. And with the GOP wishing to degrade the stimulus bill, scale it back, because it isn’t rapid enough for them seems counterproductive. Surely, results will appear but people need jobs now-ish, not later-ish. Krugman critiques Obama’s plan, saying “It’s an outline. A good outline, but I’m unsure of his financial plan.”

It is true—there is no real actualization of the issues. No blunt truth, although there are blunt statistics constantly in the media. Where is this bluntness from our administrators in Washington? I think the public can surprise you when you tell them the dirty truth: instead of extreme panic, the fact that the air is devoid of murkiness may actually induce calm. Like clearing your subconscious of aged plaque weighing you down.

Agreed. People are hearing middle of the road comments. Such as, ‘its going to be tough’—not ‘this may take 7 years before we’re fully stabilized and can attempt to grow into surplus’. It’s fascinating to watch the debate over the stimulus plan, when it’s very likely they’ll return for another round of stimulus. Battling depression economics is a marathon, not a sprint. We’re looking to put a band-aide on a sawed off shotgun blast-wound.

Throwing a callback to an earlier article of mine “Socialism; This Year’s Dirty Word”, Krugman brought up government nationalization for the larger companies exfoliating economic toxins. Now, detractors and most of the public called President Obama a socialist. And not in a nice way. While it is true some of his ideas were socialist, our nation took a step towards a socialist type government when it decided to buy into the failing financial system. They did not buy them out, but bought into their stock. This occurred before Obama had a chance to initiate whatever goals he had planned. The nation’s structure built up pressure until it required that we fissure it. Interesting. It is not Obama which is pushing us towards socialism, but our capitalist society. Is it possible the natural course for all capitalist economies is socialism?

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association