Trickle-Dumb Economics

MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer criticized Obama’s FDR-like stimulus plan today, wondering if spending money, with the economy in such bad shape, was a bad idea. Obama plans to spend up to a trillion dollars to get the economy back on track. The MSM and Republicans, however, have been very critical of the new stimulus plan.

As any businessperson will tell you, “You gotta spend money to make money.” These people talk to business people, right? Maybe that’s the problem. We enabled these guys with self-regulation, and now, like drug addicts on the street, American business executives are begging for money with their hands out. We go and hand it over.

The old Regan trickle-down mentality is alive and kicking. It should be shot in the back of the head for getting us into this mess in the first place. Voodoo economics isn’t viable. It is a thinly disguised ploy to transfer wealth directly to the top.

Obama’s plan will put people to work, improve the country and, possibly, even give money to consumers directly. It’s not rocket science. If people have money, they pay their bills. The companies that issued these bills get paid (including the banks that so badly need our assistance). The result is both the banks and regular Americans are back in the black.

Contrast it to the Bush Plan. How is this trickle-down method supposed to work? Bush writes a $3 trillion check to the banks; they shore up their books. Struggling Americans are still screwed. Credit is still dry, no one is hiring and they still can’t pay their mortgages or their credit card bills or buy stuff for the kids for the holidays. Depressing.

Of course we chose the trickle-down route. After the first installment, we have failed to free up credit, job numbers are at a 30-year low, the banks are still in the red and are now asking for more, and now our auto industry is about to fail. But now, no, we don’t have money for a stimulus package.

In light of the bank bailout, a trillion dollars should be no problem, especially since this has a chance to save our economy. This money is spent on improving America’s schools and infrastructure, but even if this isn’t the silver bullet that saves the economy, the effects will be infinitely greater to most Americans than will the effects of the $3 trillion we handed to the banks.

As Chris Matthews said a couple weeks ago, money for rich people gets spent no questions asked — but when we want programs that help regular people, like healthcare, schools and now this stimulus package, we can’t afford it. Hopefully this trickle-dumb mentality ends with George W. Bush (it won’t). If Obama wants to hit the ground running, he should kick in the stimulus plan as soon as the rubber touches the asphalt.