At Last! Something For The Rest Of Us

The reason so many Americans have been so down on government attempts to boost the economy is easy to understand. Until now, all the hundreds of billions allocated for this stated purpose, and the trillion more that might soon be piled atop that total, are not designed to boost the economy at all.

Rather, this money is going to replace loses incurred by bumbling, greedy financial institutions. And if this enormous gifting actually succeeds in “bailing out the banks,” it will improve the country not one iota. It will merely allow banks to do what they were doing before their awful behavior caught up with them. Its a process like filling a hole that should never have been dug in the first place. Fill it up and you’re just back where you started.

Ah, but this new stimulus measure about to become law. Of course it’s not enough to get the economy healthy again. That’s obvious. But once people see that at last their government is cutting their payroll taxes a bit, and their government is building schools and roads, and their government in Washington is keeping employed many, many people in the states, there will be a great change in perception.

The public will understand the difference between bailing out waste and worthwhile spending. And the Republicans’ sadly successful efforts to conflate the two will begin to lose traction.