Barney Frank Loves Money UPDATE: Frank purposes military cuts
Barney Frank must dream about money.
He probably talks in his sleep, “money, I want to spend more money, raise taxes, spend money!” Everything that comes out of the guy’s mouth lately relates to spending money.
First he said, “I think at this point, there needs to be an immediate increase in spending.” Despite the looming budget deficit and the national debt clock, which recently tipped over $10 trillion, causing it to run out of spaces.
Then, in almost the same breath, he said that “later on” we need to increase taxes, specifically on the wealthy.
Yes, I think later on, there should be tax increases. Speaking personally, I think there are a lot of rich people out there who we can tax at a point down the road to recover some of this money.
Now Frank and the democrats want another stimulus package.
Even though Congress is in recess, Democrats have held several hearings this week to make the case for a $150 billion or more economic stimulus measure to follow the $700 billion bank rescue passed three weeks ago. A round of tax rebates and business tax breaks passed in February was credited with giving the economy a modest boost over the summer, but fears of a protracted recession after the credit crisis have Democrats promising more.
Yeah, it gave the economy a “modest boost,” until it crashed.
Democrats are focusing renewed attention on spending programs like public works projects such as road building and bridge repair, extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, higher food stamp payments and aid to states to prevent layoffs and help with Medicaid costs.
Not to sound like a broken record but, the spending on bridge repair and road building can easily be solved by locking up the money generated by the gas tax and only spending it on infrastructure. By the way, what exactly is “long-term jobless,” would someone not looking for a job fall into the category of “long-term jobless?”
The best part of this new “crap sandwich” is the aid to states. As the article puts it the aid is intended to “prevent layoffs.” Shouldn’t the cash-strapped states be doing that right now? Excuse me if I’m wrong but, they’re in debt. They need to cut spending, they certainly can’t raise taxes (that would be death in a recession, unless of course your Jennifer Granholm). These states have to find a way to balance the budget, if they work it out so they don’t have to lay anyone off, awesome. But if they have to lay people off, they have to lay people off.
“Since unemployed persons typically spend their checks to meet basic needs, the program yields a particularly large ‘bang for the buck,’” said Jared Bernstein, senior economist for the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
Sure they might spend it on basic needs but the government handing them more money is only making matters worse. The government doesn’t have money to spend; that’s clear. No one is too keen on loaning them money right now because, well, they’re not too good at paying it back. The result? They have to print more money. The result of that? Inflation goes up. The result of that? Higher prices, including basic needs. The government is more or less shooting themselves in the foot on this one.
Oh but good ole’ Barney Frank is here to calm everyone’s nerves.
If Republicans continue to resist, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Democrats are likely to rejoin the issue in January, when they expect party standard bearer Barack Obama to take the oath of office as president.
“There’s no question the House will pass … a much bigger (stimulus plan) than we passed before,” Frank said of a postelection lame duck session. “If enough Republicans in the Senate decide to filibuster it … then we’ll just wait until January.”
Circulate that quote. That should be reason enough to vote for either John McCain or against the democrat in your local election.
UPDATE: Barney Frank has extended his ignorance. He has now said that we need to cut military spending by 25%.
In a meeting with the editorial board of The Standard-Times, Rep. Frank, D-Mass., also called for a 25 percent cut in military spending, saying the Pentagon has to start choosing from its many weapons programs, and that upper-income taxpayers are going to see an increase in what they are asked to pay.
Frank’s new motto – When in doubt, cut the military out.
Is it really the best idea to cut military spending during a time of war? To cut 25% of military spending would all but guarantee a removal from Iraq and Afghanistan, unless Frank has other ideas to save money in the military.
Military spending isn’t even our largest expenditure. In the proposed 2008 FY budget social security consumes a whopping $608 billion (21% of the entire budget and up 4.5% from 2007, by the way it increases around 4% each year). If you add in Medicaid, Medicare, and Unemployment/Welfare, the amount skyrockets to $1.5 trillion, over half of the entire budget!
At least as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down spending will decrease. But where is the end to the spending increases on social security and medicare? There’s literally no end in sight so long as the democrats continue to block privatization.
Would Barney Frank ever consider a spending cut on social security? Not in my lifetime.
–jb
2 Comments
wayne on October 24th, 2008
What a funny character.
» Barney Frank Loves Money on October 24th, 2008
[...] Not to sound like a broken record but, the spending on bridge repair and road building can easily be solved by locking up the money generated by the gas tax and only spending it on infrastructure. By the way, what exactly is “long-term … Barney Frank Loves Money [...]