I was watching a national feed to the local news this morning about yesterday’s vote in the House for President Obama’s economic stimulus bill. Much was made of how the vote went almost straight down party lines with all Republicans voting against it and all but a dozen or so Democrats voting for it. Wouldn’t want to be them come committee assignment time. But I digress. Anyway, according to the news report each party have economic plans which goes thusly. First, the Republican plan:
And now the Obama plan:
Or something like that. This of course ties into one of the, if not the, key element of Obama’s campaign:
Okay, fun is fun, but let’s get serious.
The Obama i.e. Democratic stimulus plan and Republican reaction to same reflect the fundamental philosophical difference between the two parties when it comes to how the nation’s economy is best handled plus illustrating how government itself is approached. Obama’s approach is tax relief for individuals combined with deficit spending by the government on itself in the belief this will get the economy moving again with the government as caretaker/overseer/employer. Republicans expound slashing taxes on individuals and especially business in the belief this will reinvigorate the economy by prompting business and consumer spending, the former resulting in more jobs thus enabling the latter. Other than reducing taxes on individuals with the aim of encouraging consumer spending (if you’re genuine in believing this is important how about mandating the halving of interest rates on all credit cards and returning the federal income tax deduction on said interest, gang?), not a whole lot of space-sharing between the two.
The problem with both plans is neither embraces the whole of reality. Government spending on itself as it promotes itself as lord and master has never solved any economic downturn. It didn’t stop the Great Depression; World War Two took care of that. The directive of spending money on improving our national transportation infrastructure is welcome as anyone who travels on any given highway and freeway can attest. However, such projects take at minimum years and usually decades to formulate and execute. The economy needs relief in a far more immediate fashion.
That all said, believing business unfettered by regulation and enriched by lower taxes will solve everything is wishing on a fool star. Have we not repeatedly seen that when such an environment exists very few members of the business world make the welfare of their employees present and future a key element of their operational core? Profit is king, people are expendable.
It’d be nice if there was genuine bipartisanship in the approach to this matter, this as compared to what is being heralded by the new administration’s PR firm, otherwise known as the news media, as reaching out when in fact it’s reaching out just far enough to try and grab the other side so it can be yanked over the fence. Granted, it’s seen in Washington about as often as unicorns, but genuine bipartisanship where both sides come together over a clean sheet of paper and work toward either a common ground based on existing positions or creating a new solution to the task at hand would be most welcome given the dire straits we’re in. And not a sultan of swing in sight, although under the Obama plan money for nothing is the norm. Or at least money created out of nothing.
