Our Stimulus...

My Article from our school newspaper, The Shorthorn:  http://tinyurl.com/awng9z

$735,014,005 per page, all 1071 pages of it totaling $787.2 billion. That is how much each page of this will cost the tax payers over the next 50 years. With the unemployment rate at 7.6% and President Obama warning that to not pass the Stimulus Package would be a catastrophe, the politics of fear succeeded. Where was the hope? Economists have spoken out saying that the projected 3.5 million jobs to be created or saved is an inflation of the facts. Even the Congressional Budget Office, after further analysis of the proposed stimulus, said that it would do worse damage to the economy and end up reducing GDP within 10 years and an unemployment rate hovering at 10%. Leaving the economy alone would have a more positive effect…

With only three Republicans voting for the measure in the whole Legislative branch, before the election, President Obama campaigned as the candidate that would not let divisiveness stand and would “ring in a new era of bipartisanship, accountability, and responsibility”, seems so distant now. He was seen mocking the Republican’s during a speech at a Democratic Congressional retreat a week ago and with the Republicans ideas being shot down during negotiations, this new era of bipartisanship is already crumbling after less than a month.

We have few instances to compare the current meltdown to, the Depression in the 1930’s-1940’s and the deep recession that accrued in the 1970’s that was inherited by President Reagan when he assumed the office of President in 1981. With the focus on infrastructure spending to get out of the Depression, President Roosevelt's own Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morganthau, was quoted at the time saying, “We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work… I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … And an enormous debt to boot.” With interest rates over 17%, high inflation, and tax rates so high that people were not paying their tax liability, Reagan had a problem. Being an advocate for tax cuts, he was able to lower the highest tax bracket from 70%, to 28%, doubling government revenues. Reagan got us out of the recession and created over 20 million jobs. Now it is too late to ask what the answer to the current recession is, when you look at history, the answer is clear. Sometimes we should look beyond ideology for the right answers.

On a side note: Michelle Obama was asked about the stimulus measure that was taken by President Bush in the Spring of 2008 ($600 per individual, $1200 per couple), she mocked the measure and dismissed it by saying she could buy a pair of earrings with it. Part of this new Obama stimulus package includes $400 for individuals and $800 for couples, wonder what she thinks about that. The new era of “hope” and “change” has come, I just “hope” that we can afford this “change”.