On Saturday the Senate agreed to a bill that would A) extend unemployment benefits B) extend the 2% payroll tax deduction and C) delay a cut in Medicare reimbursement rates. The deciders agreed to do all the extending, delaying and pretending for two lousy months. In other words, Congress will be back at it over these critical issues in less than six weeks.
There have been dozens of articles from smart people connecting the dots between the uncertain tax policies business’s face and their reluctance to hire more workers. I’ve heard Pols from both sides say the same. It’s true. But the best that Washington can do is move the ball forward by 59 days; disgraceful.
The two-month extension amounts to $33b that will be retained in the economy. I would not be surprised if the benefit of the stimulus will be lost by the continued uncertainty that is being caused by D.C. What has been “accomplished” is just a loss.
The bright guys who came up with the plan have a mechanism to pay for it. They’re going to charge homeowners a new fee for the next ten years. If you get a mortgage from one of the federal agencies (90% of mtg. market) you’ll pay an extra price. It only comes to $15 a month if your mortgage is less than $220k. But if you live on either coast or in any big city, the cost of housing will force you to pay a bigger price. $45-50 a month is a more realistic way to consider the implications. What’s an extra $600 a year? It’s just another nail in the coffin for housing.
By far and away the weakest link in the economy is housing. There is not much that can be done about it. It takes time and there will be pain. But there is no excuse for congress to force homeowners to absorb the full cost of the stimulus. The legislation results in mortgagors directly subsidizing doctor's Medicare reimbursement rates! How stupid is that? What are these people thinking of? This is terrible economic policy, and every legislator who signs the Bill, knows that fact.
The problem with the legislative process in this case was the side deals that got included in the horse-trading. This time the issue was the Keystone XL pipeline. The Republicans wanted it; the Democrats opposed it. Why does the fate of the pipeline have to be tied to the fate of important economic legislation? Why can’t we have an up and down vote on issues? The Deciders lumped these two divergent considerations together and in the process shot us in the foot. We end up with another stopgap measure and few weeks before we have to do it all over. My Senator, Chucky Boy Schumer (D-N.Y.) had this to say about the conflict that is sure to come in February:
“It’s a fight we welcome”
These clowns love this stuff. It has nothing to do with the right choices; it’s about the next election. They don’t give a damn about the country or it’s citizens. It’s about keeping their powerful jobs.
I know whom I’m voting for in the next election. I’m voting against anyone that is currently “in”. I don’t care what stripe they wear. I want the other guy/gal. I’m going to vote against Chuck Schumer and all the other "ins". I want to send a message to every damn one of them. The ones who have their hands on any levers today; are no longer wanted.
Some will argue that I’m being irrational. That if enough voters thought as I do all the folks who now run governments would be out, and a crop of new ones, who didn’t know where the bathroom was, would take over. I don’t care. We can’t do worse than the current lot.
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I'm with in voting against "in"s.
ReplyDeleteBut then, it is easy for me. I live in CA and we have an abundance of dolts.
Jim,MtnView,Ca
Voting "other" improves our choices. Reality is these policies can be fixed. In an ideal model of the world...politicians would read and learn, and obey basic social goods principles.
ReplyDeleteBruce, if someone chooses to run as a Democrat or a Republican they are immediately disqualified from consideration. One must vote for someone who wants to dismantle the present political system. Anyone running via the two party system is immediately fatally compromised as a serious reformer lacking any credibility where such an initiative is concerned.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, candidates outside the system are, in the main, likely to have little to no record to put forward demonstrating that they are sincere proponents of ending our present system of lifelong professional office holding. In short, we will have to do whatever we can to insure that we voters are not victims, for the ten thousandth time, of bait and switch actors.
We desperately need term limits, campaign finance limits, limits on the amount of time that campaigns may last-which also addresses the issue of campaign finance- and, last but not least, lobbying.
I hasten to add that all of the horrific functioning of the legislature has been in effect for a very long time and that what is occurring now was as inevitable anything as anything can be said to be. In short, it was high time to clean house a long time ago.
Bruce:
ReplyDeleteThe invasion of walls of money into politics over the decades seems to have elicited irreparable damage. Short of insurrection of the old fashioned kind (18th century France), I do not see how we get the vice grip removed.
Dave (from Cornell...you know me)
To really fix housing long term, we've got to get he dead hand of the U.S. government out. This requires terminating Fannie and Freddie's ability to buy mortgage loans.
ReplyDeleteIdeally we would demolish the buildings that house the GSEs and put up monuments to Mises and Hayek in their places so they can never be rebuilt.
And if my Senator was Chuck the Schmuck Schumer, I'd be voting for anybody else too.
I don't believe extending unemployment benefits is an economic solution, at best it can only be argued on humanitarian grounds. The government collects huge sums of money yet invests it poorly giving out loans to finance solar projects that are uneconomic instead of purchasing solar panels from the Chinese who dump them at below production prices. There are no quick fixes, so it makes sense to focus on long term solutions. We could be investing in our infrastructure(repairing and replacing old bridges and/or perhaps reconstructing a true high speed rail for the North East Corridor, the important point being the benefit of the investment must exceed the cost and make this country more productive.
ReplyDeleteWe have met the enemy and he is us.
ReplyDeleteThirty years ago, it was okay to dedicate spaced shuttles to Islamic fundamentalists and compare them to our founding fathers now building a mosque is treason.
In 2001, deficit spending was good or at least not a problem. In 2011, deficit spending is treason.
Millions of people actually believe that Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes moved heaven and earth to stop the mortgage crisis but were thwarted by the cabal of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd
We had a political convention in 2004 where delegates openly mocked American soldiers wounded in warfare.
Every bond document issued by FNMA/FHLMC explicitly stated that their debt was not the obligation of the US government. Yet, in 2008, we had a President who said the word NOT was not operational -- and few raised any objection.
Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They've long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying, to get what they want.
ReplyDeleteWell, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. That's right. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago. They don't want that.
You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they're coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin' place. It's a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in The big club. By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.
The table has tilted, folks. The game is rigged. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people - white collar, blue collar, it doesn't matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue - these are people of modest means - Continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don't give a fuck about you. They don't give a fuck about you. They don't care about you at all. At all. At all. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care.
That's what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes every day, because the owners of this country know the truth: It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
George Carlin RIP
I refuse to vote in their rigged game.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the vulgarity, but I am tired of the political BS. I am "mad as hell and I am not going to take it any more."
ReplyDeleteThere well may be owners rigging the system but half the country are greeks. How did that happen? I donno. Maybe the owners own the schools too.
ReplyDeleteRon Paul 2012 (period).
ReplyDeleteBruce don't let yourself get dragged I to being just another inarticulate hater.
ReplyDeleteBruce I am with you. I am going to run on the "unparty" ticket. No donations, fundraisers or party affiliation. Just honesty and in your face directness. Let see how the voters like the truth......
ReplyDeleteBruce,
ReplyDeleteCould you point out specifically where it states this?
I'm trying to find it to no avail. I found the Bill on Thomas, but it says the print version hasn't been released. Eventually I want to write a piece my area (5th District) as both Senators and my Representative voted in favor of this fraud.
Bruce, you are smarter than me. Do you have any idea how much the cost is for the government to investigate politicians obtaining lower rates / fees from Countrywide? It has been a few years and I keep reading headlines about the same 4 people with a refinance that cost them about $2,000 each lower than normal costs. Is the government really spending millions on maybe $10k of gifts? Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI am with you about ditching incumbents. Have been saying to my friends for months that I intend to vote with that very much in mind.
ReplyDeleteCurrent political environment reminds me of some quotes I like:
"When someone shows you who they are -- believe them!"
There's A LOT of truth to what Edwardo says above. So, in that vein:
"If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you've got."
And a lyric from an old Tears for Fears song:
"Nothing ever changes unless there's some pain."
However, I don't think (as also seems to be the case with many readers of this blog) that we've suffered nearly enough pain yet to instigate the revolution that needs to occur.
We're ALL Independents now.
ReplyDeleteALL incumbents out in 2012!
Keep the faith and get involved. In my district we have fired our congressman twice in the last 5 years. Kicking out an ineffective alcoholic 30yr backbencher Repub then his new-wave Dem replacement. We now have a very effective Tea Party rep. We are seen as unruly and have just been gerrymandered bigtime in our super corrupt state. But I can tell you we are going to shock them again this Fall. Being an owner means following issues and staying involved and voting your proxy. Don't give up folks!!
ReplyDeleteWake up people, we already have term limits! They are called elections!
ReplyDeleteIt's not all incumbents out in 2012, it's all incumbents out EACH AND EVERY ELECTION.
In the words of Walpole, “In all science error precedes the truth, ad it is better it should go first than last.”
ReplyDelete