Bipartisanship

[im_sneaky]

HappySqurriel said:

akuma587 said:
Back to the biofuel conspiracies again, eh? I don't really think the stimulus was moving forward on those en masse as far as I could tell. Correct me if I am wrong.

Well frankly, I'd rather be "frightened" into doing something that helps us domestically rather than being "frightened" into something that forces us to spend over a trillion abroad. If Republicans are so worried about the deficit, why are they so gung ho on the ludicrous amount of money national defense costs us? You want to talk about pork barrel spending.

 

First off, subsidies to corn based ethanol causing starvation isn’t a "conspiracy" it’s a fact. It is considered one of (if not ‘the’) leading factors to the massive famine in 2008. It’s a great demonstration on how the unintended consequences of a decision on the scale that the President and Congress make can lead to massive suffering and death throughout the world.

Secondly, don't rewrite history! 58% of Democrat Senators voted for the War on Iraq and there were lots of conservative minded people (like myself) who opposed the war. The difference between my position then and now, is that the United States choose to go to war and has an obligation to return Iraq to a state of stability and security because of that decision.

Now the difference between National Defence Spending and this stimulus bill is that defence spending actually creates a residual value. When you re-sod the lawn at the national mall (or dig ditches and refill them as Keynes suggested) no research and development is done, no private infastructure is built, and when the job is completed more government money has to be spent in order to keep people employed; this is the reason FDR spent so much money and unemployment remained high throughout his term. In contrast, a large portion of defense spending is done in the private sector which produces factories and research institutions; and they typically end up developing practical solutions to problems which are similar to those private individuals have. World War II (as awful as it was) ended up producing most of the technology that was used to build most consumer products for the next 30 years, and lead to one of the most prosperous times for the united states.

 

 

I think Obama could easily start another war. Look at the history of America after WW2. War after war, setting up and bringing down dictators, by both Democrat and Republican presidents. I wonder if Obama will be forced into doing something about eroding American power... anything to stay on top of the pack right? At least from there you can make the rules.