IM: WHUSDJ
CURRENT SHOW
The Victorian Era
Not feeling like reading a 400 page book on social movements theory, I have decided to post a quick note about the "stimulus" package of 2009 and counter some arguments that I have heard from those who oppose it.
First off, the only people I know who opposed the stimulus are Tea Party-type conservatives. One of the first Tea Party protests was on February 19, 2009 - the goal was to protest the stimulus plan, but another of their main concerns was that they were afraid their taxes would increase.
Question 1: Did they even know what was in the stimulus plan?
Answer: If the protest signs and quotes from protesters are any clue, then no. No, they did not know what was in the stimulus plan.
If they listened to Rick Santelli, they may have thought the stimulus plan was simple: bail out home owners that were facing foreclosure due to bad banking practices (practices that were illegal before republican Lindsey Gramm wrote the bill that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and allowed his wife to make a disgustingly large profit).
If they had read the bill, or read anything ABOUT the bill that was NOT reported on Fox News, they would have known that over 35% of stimulus funds actually went to tax Cuts. Tax CUTS.
Another third went to infrastructure (which created jobs) and about 30% went to programs like the cash for clunker thing, the mortgage bail-out thing, etc.
See where the money went here: http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/default.aspx
Fox News and right-wing radio hosts are still saying the stimulus didn't work.
Really guys?
Really?
The U.S. began losing jobs every month in 2008 (thanks junior!). This continued Until the stimulus went into effect.
The stimulus plan was set in motion in early 2009, but no funds were dispersed until the fall of 2009. We saw job loss rates jump from a peak of 800 thousand per month at the end of Junior's presidency, down to about 250 jobs lost per month in the fall of '09. You can see for yourself here:
So the U.S. is currently not losing any jobs, unemployment is still very, very high, and conservatives think that union members in Wisconsin are whining about "entitlements"... makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?
and BTW, anyone with a beating heart and a functioning brain would look at what's going on in Wisconsin and say to themselves "hey, those people working in the public sector in Wisconsin have pretty good benefits, and they are unionized which means they have full democratic rights in their workplace... instead of hating them, maybe i should start a union in MY workplace so that I can have a chance at getting a decent standard of living, like they have"
Just saying.
signing off, and wishing i had time for a radio show this semester...
back to the books.