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Hey,
Small Spender
by Paul Krugman
Here's the narrative you hear
everywhere: President Obama has presided over a huge expansion of
government,
but unemployment has remained high. And this proves that government
spending can't create jobs.
Here's what you need to know: The whole story is a myth. There never
was a big expansion of government spending. I
n fact, that has been the key problem with economic policy in the Obama
years: we never had the kind of fiscal expansion
that might have created the millions of jobs we need.
Ask yourself: What major new federal programs have started up since Mr.
Obama took office? Health care reform,
for the most part, hasn’t kicked in yet, so that can’t be it. So are
there giant infrastructure projects under way? No.
Are there huge new benefits for low-income workers or the poor? No.
Where’s
all that spending we keep hearing about?
It never happened.
To be fair, spending on safety-net programs, mainly unemployment
insurance and Medicaid, has risen - because,
in case you haven’t noticed, there has been a surge in the number of
Americans without jobs and badly in need of help.
And there were also substantial outlays to rescue troubled financial
institutions, although it appears that the government
will get most of its money back. But when people denounce big
government, they usually have in mind the creation of
big bureaucracies and major new programs. And that just hasn’t taken
place.
If I remember right, Krugman was a
HUGE critic of Obama early on for NOT spending enough on the Stimulus.
Looks like Krugman was right.
If Obama had spent TWICE as much,
or THREE TIMES as much on the Stimulus,
all would be forgiven if unemployment was hovering around 5% right now.
Besides, we've all seen the charts:
This is what Obama
spent saving Detroit and the US Banking system:
XXXXXXXXXX
And this is what the Bush bastards spent on wars
and tax cuts:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
So Obama's a bad man for saving America, and the GOP
knows how to fix shit
- with MORE wars and MORE tax cuts for the super-rich?
We're coming up on an election where the facts don't
matter?