optimusprime_IHB
New member
From TheStreet.com's Robert Marcin
Memo to Barack
2/5/2009 1:55 PM EST
I read your op-ed piece this morning and beg to disagree. What America needs, now more than anytime in our economic history, is a profound understanding of the economic situation we face. We do not need a hastily contrived, trillion dollar social spending plan forced down our throats.
This crisis exists because American citizens and their bankers overborrowed and overspent by trillion of dollars. This occurred with negligent government oversight and perhaps even government encouragement via incentives. That is the problem.
We cannot borrow and spend our way out of a debt bust no matter how politically expedient you may want it to be. Any stimulus plan simply shifts debt from one account to another and must be repaid with hundred of billions of dollars of interest.
The solution for too much consumption and too much debt is not to borrow trillions to forestall the economic consequences, but rather to manage the natural downcycle involved in a delevering process.
In my opinion, we should bolster the infrastructure spending part of the stimulus. We have skimped here for decades and it's truly necessary. Also, we should boost the safety net part of the plan. This downcycle will get ferocious because the debt bubble was so egregious. We will very much need these.
But the social spending and pork barrel programs funding need to go. They provide neither living expenses today, nor quality of life improvements tomorrow.
We need to invest this trillion dollars, this really huge money, in a way that maximizes our return. Our kids will be stuck repaying this money for decades. A thoughtful, well discussed plan is the key. Many citizens feel the current program does not represent that. Don't try to Paulson us and claim the world will end if we delay in accepting a Democratic social spending stimulus.
Memo to Barack
2/5/2009 1:55 PM EST
I read your op-ed piece this morning and beg to disagree. What America needs, now more than anytime in our economic history, is a profound understanding of the economic situation we face. We do not need a hastily contrived, trillion dollar social spending plan forced down our throats.
This crisis exists because American citizens and their bankers overborrowed and overspent by trillion of dollars. This occurred with negligent government oversight and perhaps even government encouragement via incentives. That is the problem.
We cannot borrow and spend our way out of a debt bust no matter how politically expedient you may want it to be. Any stimulus plan simply shifts debt from one account to another and must be repaid with hundred of billions of dollars of interest.
The solution for too much consumption and too much debt is not to borrow trillions to forestall the economic consequences, but rather to manage the natural downcycle involved in a delevering process.
In my opinion, we should bolster the infrastructure spending part of the stimulus. We have skimped here for decades and it's truly necessary. Also, we should boost the safety net part of the plan. This downcycle will get ferocious because the debt bubble was so egregious. We will very much need these.
But the social spending and pork barrel programs funding need to go. They provide neither living expenses today, nor quality of life improvements tomorrow.
We need to invest this trillion dollars, this really huge money, in a way that maximizes our return. Our kids will be stuck repaying this money for decades. A thoughtful, well discussed plan is the key. Many citizens feel the current program does not represent that. Don't try to Paulson us and claim the world will end if we delay in accepting a Democratic social spending stimulus.
