RonHill
Veteran
Location: ..
| SLC| Quote |
| Every post you make is fact as far as I can tell.
How the !@#$ can you be on Bush's side?
|
My post was not in defense of Bush...More like a question to those that blame Bush on how can they explain the data presented.
I am asking those that blame Bush for the economy to explain how before the Dems had Congress the economy was doing great considering 9/11. But after they took office the economy took as they say a "dive".
I do think Congress has more effect on the economy than the President...They have to create and pass the bills, the President can only really sign or veto them. I personally believe that ANY party that has control of the Congress and WH is going to overspend and that is always bad.
Most of the basher's here are not stupid...They just buy into populist economics. They always know exactly what they think is wrong, but their solutions are often vague, or in most cases sound good but are more fantasy based than economically sound. And the solutions ignore history.
Some popular populist points:
1. A promise to fix injustices. In some cases these are hyped to be bigger than really exist. But justice is something that almost anyone can rally behind.
2. A plan to start punishing the corrupt elite and give to the little guy (Robbin Hood). There always needs to be a perceived bad guy to fight. It helps to focus the hate and rally the troops.
3. They try to project easy to understand answers to highly complex issues. (Republicans are bad for the economy, Democrats are good for it..Or to be fair reverse the two).
The problems with economic populist principals is they just do not work no matter how many times they have been tried. Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru have tried it several times and each time it has failed.
Lets just look at a really popular one right now....A Tax holiday on Federal gas taxes.
We have our bad guy (Gas companies), our easy to understand plan that rewards us and punishes them (We reduce your tax and make them pay more). We even have examples of other places that it will work (although we ignore important data such as we are comparing import economies to export economies).
The problem is it just will not work as they say. We tried it in the late 70's and it was by almost every measure a disaster.
It did not work in IL...As anyone with even one class in economics knows...If you reduce the cost, supply will increase and when that happens prices will rise. In the summer the reason that gas prices rise is that supply is low....Increase demand and it will lower supply even more and we will run out. Start rationing it and there will be a run just like in 1974.
| Quote |
| http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90309571
That finding was echoed by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which found that 5 percent tax cuts in Illinois and Indiana resulted in only a 3 percent drop in retail gasoline prices.
|
It will do exactly what it did before...Provide almost no relief to the average person, reduce oil companies exploration and development, and it will increase our dependence on imported oil.
BUT, it sure sounds nice...Never mind that it will never actually work.
Good politics but bad economics and we have the data to prove it.
Obama is the only one that actually admits it is a stupid idea.
Regrettably Obama does not support the 2nd and supports socialized medicine. The 2nd IMO is not really any more debatable than the 1st...And I think the SC will rule that way. And socialized medicine has been shown to not work...Not to mention the terrible history of ANY socialized program in the US. Due to these issues....I can't vote for him. Clinton is more of the same. McCain and I disagree with still being in Iraq. But no candidate will match perfectly and he is the lesser of the two evils IMO.
Populist economics is popular and sounds good...But the ideas are not sound and have already been shown to not work.
I would just like those that support it....To explain how they can claim that Bush is bad for the economy in spite of how it rebounded after 9/11 and continued to grow until the Democrats took control of Congress. |
