Joe Klein writes in Time Magazine today that he sees two reasons why so many people find the stimulus package wasteful, is because Obama did not explain it well or the people are too dumb to understand its benefits:
1. The Obama Administration has done a terrible job explaining the stimulus package to the American people...especially since there have been very few documented cases of waste so far.
2. This is yet further evidence that Americans are flagrantly ill-informed...and, for those watching Fox News, misinformed.
It is very difficult to have a democracy without citizens. It is impossible to be a citizen if you don't make an effort to understand the most basic activities of your government. It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you're a nation of dodos.
Mr. Klein bases his conclusions on the fact that a good chunk of the stimulus has gone to the people in the form of tax cuts and state grants (bailouts):
Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787 stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted. On second thought, they may be right: it's been wasted on them. Indeed, the largest single item in the package--$288 billion--is tax relief for 95% of the American public. This money is that magical $60 to $80 per month you've been finding in your paycheck since last spring. Not a life changing amount, but helpful in paying the bills.
The next highest amount was $275 billion in grants and loans to states. This is why your child's teacher wasn't laid off...and why the fire station has remained open, and why you're not paying even higher state and local taxes to close the local budget hole.
People understand the stimulus just fine. A lousy $13 a week is a cruel joke when gas, groceries and everything else is going up. Trillion dollar dumps from the Feds makes matters worse as the value of our money is diluted further. Bailouts to the states are a temporary bandage. What happens when those stimulus funds run out? State and local governments are going to have to do what they were suppose to do in the first place, cut, cut, cut.
The problem with Joe Klein and arrogant lefties like him is that they refuse to admit that their policies suck eggs. Instead they will blame each other, the electorate or anything else under the sun. It is this “sit back and shut up, because I know best" attitude that is really feeding a lot of the anger out there. Thankfully, idiots like Klein keep stoking the fire, keeping us dumb unwashed masses fired up to eradicate these elitists know nothings once and for all.
Oh and another thing, this one-sided cheerleading by the mainstream media that helped to hoodwink the nation into voting for an empty suit, is a sin that will have to be address sooner rather than later. If the media wants to become relevant again, they need to start giving more facts like a candidate's voting record or the actual make up of these bills before Congress, rather than regurgitating spin or crafting political soap operas. So if Mr. Klein finds the electorate a bunch of "dodos" he need only look in the mirror for the root cause.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: Time Magazine
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7 comments:
This hilarious brainfart by Klein reminds me of the comment of Kurt Weill in 1953 after the Berlin riots on hearing of Stalin's death & the comment of the GDR Stalinist Commie Magnates of East Germany that the Germans were unworthy of the gift of Communism. Weill was heard saying out loud "Perhaps the government should find itself another People."
Klein and his band of poster boys for anarcho/syndicalism or socialism or corporatist fascism are more touts and cheerleaders than actual thinkers. Their mantra beats the drum for government ownership & control, and they're going to borrow the stimulus money and push it into "shovel-ready" projects? The only shovel being used is the one carrying the BS that Klein and his buddies distribute by the truckload.
One man's "stimulus" is another man's "deficit" that is going to have to be paid off. Gypsy bandits like Klein and the rest of the parasitic elites on the ultra-left can have all the patronizing condescending hissy fits they want. The American people are walking away from them, their BS, and their BS POTUS Obama.
Cliff - great piece. I linked to you at RN USA.
How noble of the government to return pennies against the thousands now owed by every taxpayer. Joe Klein is certainly old enough to grasp history if he ever actually read any or understood it. Economics 101 is clearly above his pay grade.
Dave, thanks for the Kurt Weill quote. I'd never heard that and it's terrific.
Fabulous post, Clifton.
Dave in Boca:
Many Americans are waking up to the fact that these so called elites have been running the nation into the ground for several decades now. They all are locked into their second hand knowledge, that is why there is no common sense or original thought coming out of Washington from either side of the aisle.
It is time to return the nation to the hands of the common man. There is a reason why the Constitutional requirements for office are so basic, it is because our founders did not believe in a governing class.
Rational Nation:
Thanks and much appreciated.
Janelle:
Klein is simply masquerading as someone who understands anything. Do you think for a hot second, Klein has a clue what the middle class' needs truly are?
Klein is an arrogant elitise who was part of the hoodwink that elected Obama et al. We were sold a pig in a poke because Joe and his friends didn't do their job. If we are woefully ignorant it is, once again, it is because the press has not done what it is paid to do. Joe will collect his fat pay check while the poor un-washed eat gruel. Behind closed doors I suspect Joe is saying "let them eat cake."
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