by Damozel | It's the end of the world as we know it---thanks mainly to Bush and his pals in Congress, including Mitch McConnell---and McConnell is worried now about "unprecedented government spending"? Late is not always better than never. But now...now McConnell is "voicing skepticism."
At My DD, Charles Lemos nails the real motivation here. "Let's call it what it is. It's not skepticism, this is obstructionism." John Aravosis calls it "Mitch McConnell's hurricane Katrina moment" and it's pretty much a perfect analogy:
Further to this point, Joe Sudbay remarks:
What is the name of the disorder that makes someone keep blindly following the same program over and over and over, even after all the evidence is in that not only did it not work, but it never could have worked, and the words EPIC FAIL have been stamped on it in letters a thousand feet high?
Democrats are, quite literally, agog. But we shouldn't be. The Republican 'base" being what it is, this sort of reflexive posturing is simply a product of the all-too-well-founded conviction that you CAN fool some of the people all of the time. It's really not necessary to fool them all.
Hale "Bonddad" Stewart speaks specifically to McConnell's role in all this.
Stewart explains for the benefit of McConnell and other "skeptics" who wish to obstruct the plan that if C+I+E+G = GDP---where C = consumer spending, I-investment, E=net exports in a country running that mammoth trade deficit---ONLY G (as in "government spending") can save us now. "You dolt," he adds for good measure.
Nate Silver examines in some depth the reasoning that ought to be at work here for any sane GOPper still in Congress and that will be at work for the half dozen or so who are. He comes close---so close---to paraphrasing Mark Twain, which would have been awesome.
"Imagine for a moment that you are a Republican Congressman," Silver begins. The next lines should have been, "Then imagine for a moment you are an idiot. But I repeat myself."
RECENT BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS
Lawsuit Re-Spotlights Bush Adminstration's & Media's Negatives
Car Bomb Kills Dozens in Pakistan
States vs. Feds: Stimulus Meets Local and State Budget Cuts
More Violence: Egyptian Border Guards Open Fire on Fleeing Palestinian Refugees from Gaza; and a Compendium of Commentary on the Attacks
The "'Clean' Coal Carolers" Gots Some Explaining to Do: Big Toxic Mess in Tennessee Is Much Worse than Previously Believed (Includes Video)
RE: Obama's Stimulus
"Everyone knows Americans consume too much. What was it that then Sen. Obama said on the subject? "We can't just keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert and keep consuming 25 percent of the world's resources with just 4 percent of the world's population, and expect the rest of the world to say, 'You just go ahead, we'll be fine.'"
And boy, we took the great man's words to heart. SUV sales have nose-dived, and 72 is no longer your home's thermostat setting but its current value expressed as a percentage of what you paid for it.
If I understand then Sen. Obama's logic, in a just world Americans would be 4 percent of the population and consume 4 percent of the world's resources. And in these past few months we've made an excellent start toward that blessed utopia: Americans are driving smaller cars, buying smaller homes, giving smaller Christmas presents. And yet, strangely, President-elect Barack Obama doesn't seem terribly happy about the Obamafication of the U.S. economy. He's proposing some 5.7 bazillion dollar "stimulus" package or whatever it is now to "stimulate" it back into its bad old ways."
-Mark Steyn
Posted by: Flowerplough | January 01, 2009 at 05:37 AM
"Everyone knows Americans consume too much. What was it that then Sen. Obama said on the subject? "We can't just keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert and keep consuming 25 percent of the world's resources with just 4 percent of the world's population, and expect the rest of the world to say, 'You just go ahead, we'll be fine.'"
And boy, we took the great man's words to heart. SUV sales have nose-dived, and 72 is no longer your home's thermostat setting but its current value expressed as a percentage of what you paid for it.
If I understand then Sen. Obama's logic, in a just world Americans would be 4 percent of the population and consume 4 percent of the world's resources. And in these past few months we've made an excellent start toward that blessed utopia: Americans are driving smaller cars, buying smaller homes, giving smaller Christmas presents. And yet, strangely, President-elect Barack Obama doesn't seem terribly happy about the Obamafication of the U.S. economy. He's proposing some 5.7 bazillion dollar "stimulus" package or whatever it is now to "stimulate" it back into its bad old ways."
-Mark Steyn
Posted by: Flowerplough | January 01, 2009 at 05:44 AM