"Money Well Spent"

[David]

From his new book, “Money Well Spent?” reporter Michael Grabell explains how bad planning and poor choices doomed the largest economic recovery program in history

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion...xz z1kuBWPft4

SOURCE

[GeronL]

The Stimulus Program was nothing more than a slushfund. It did not do anything it was intended to do. It does not cost a million to "weatherize" a low-income house.

90% of that money went into pockets of friends and allies of the far left.

[Bemused]

Originally Posted by GeronL

The Stimulus Program was nothing more than a slushfund. It did not do anything it was intended to do. It does not cost a million to "weatherize" a low-income house.

90% of that money went into pockets of friends and allies of the far left.

Interesting thought. Most went to bail out states. But yes many states need the help.

NO I am NOT saying what you think I am saying. I like a lot JohnWK's balanced budget amendment which limits the feds to 18% of GDP and which forces states to get their own houses in order.

Living in California, yes I know all about the "allies of the left".

[GeronL]

No, the money was grafted. The kick backs is where that billion Obama vowed to raise is supposed to come from.

If you need a Constitutional amendment to fix spending, then we are not electing the right people. The people running for office today on either side will not obey that amendment any way.

Who gets to decide what the GDP is, government. They will manipulate it to make it say whatever they want it to say. Like Inflation not taking energy and food into account. As a matter of fact the way it is calculated today, one way to raise the GDP is to spend enormous amounts of borrowed money, this is counted as a positive by the government accountants. seriously.

Such an amendment would just encourage more manipulation. IE: See Kalipornia. They tricked voters into allowing a budget to be passed by simple majority by promising not to pay the legislature if the budget is not balanced, now they (legislature) are suing for the right to declare, deem, the massive deficits they passed as 'balanced'.

That is what will happen, more or less, on the federal level too.

You can never trust politicians, period.

[Bemused]

Originally Posted by GeronL

If you need a Constitutional amendment to fix spending, then we are not electing the right people. The people running for office today on either side will not obey that amendment any way..

So we should just bend over and take it......

Originally Posted by GeronL

Who gets to decide what the GDP is, government. They will manipulate it to make it say whatever they want it to say. Like Inflation not taking energy and food into account. As a matter of fact the way it is calculated today, one way to raise the GDP is to spend enormous amounts of borrowed money, this is counted as a positive by the government accountants. seriously..

I have had this concern myself. But what is the alternative? To just bend over and take it?

Originally Posted by GeronL

Such an amendment would just encourage more manipulation. IE: See Kalipornia. They tricked voters into allowing a budget to be passed by simple majority by promising not to pay the legislature if the budget is not balanced, now they (legislature) are suing for the right to declare, deem, the massive deficits they passed as 'balanced'.

So our only choice is to bend over and take it?

Originally Posted by GeronL

That is what will happen, more or less, on the federal level too.

You can never trust politicians, period.

So we might as well just bend over and take it, right?

This is what I absolutely hate about an awful lot of people here and elsewhere with whom I interact. The unwillingness to support anything that might at least set us off in the right direction.

If there is nothing we can do why the frack do we even bother with a Constitution? Maybe the Founding Fathers were wrong. We should all just bend over and take it!

[GeronL]

Putting your eggs in the 'amendment' basket is not going to work.

That IS bending over and taking it.

Maybe its too late and we should just let it collapse. It will, no matter which of these fools get elected.

[schaabdl]

Relative to GDP - not certain I've seen false numbers - that is a pure economic measure so hard to hide unless the numbers faked. Unlike employment data that has a lot of statistical measures and estimation.

[Bemused]

Originally Posted by schaabdl

Relative to GDP - not certain I've seen false numbers - that is a pure economic measure so hard to hide unless the numbers faked. Unlike employment data that has a lot of statistical measures and estimation.

"What is Truth?" asked the mocking Pilate.

I guess you agree - we should all line up, bend over, and take it.

[schaabdl]

No - I was being honest - certain numbers just don't seem manipulated. Government could report anything on GDP because most don't know what it means. However I think the numbers that make up GDP are verifiable making it difficult to manipulate

[Bemused]

Originally Posted by schaabdl

No - I was being honest - certain numbers just don't seem manipulated. Government could report anything on GDP because most don't know what it means. However I think the numbers that make up GDP are verifiable making it difficult to manipulate

Well, you and I seem to agree that standard metrics are reliable.

We dont have to like them. But the numbers do mean something, after all. The economy in is recovery, as slow and anemic as it is, unemployment is dropping, as slow and anemic as it is, and our side will not beat Obama unless we can stir up that Tea Party (aka common sense American) anger again.