Why have both parties been stuck on stupid for the past thirty years?

[MadHound]

President Obama has come out with another stimulus package (just don't call it that), and like so many other stimulus packages over the past three decades, it is long on tax cuts and short on actual stimulus.

It has been known for decades that tax cuts and tax credits are the least effective form of stimulus in the economic toolchest. In reality, tax cuts are little more than another way of transferring wealth up the socioeconomic ladder.

Yet after launching a stimulus package that consisted of forty percent tax cuts last year, a stimulus package that wasn't terribly stimulating, Obama and the Dems are ready to double down on this failed strategy one more time, only this time the stimulus package is going to consist of over 70% tax cuts and tax credits

This tax cut mania started under Reagan, and virtually every president since has followed his lead. It has been proven a failure time and again, and in fact it has greatly contributed to how we have gotten to where we are now, the most unequal developed nation in the world, with a massive debt and with little being spent to help the ordinary people in this country. When will we learn that tax cuts and tax credits don't help out the economy or the ordinary person so much as they help corporations and the elite?

We cannot continue to follow the failed policies of past administrations and expect to drag this economy out of the ditch we're in. Furthermore, how are we going to continue to fund public services, education, social services and the rest of the obligations of a modern state if we continue to slash the revenue needed to meet our obligations?

We are at a dire point in our history, deep into an economic disaster with little financial wiggle room to try and get ourselves out. Therefore it is of highest importance that we get the most bang out of our buck when government tries to jump start the economy. This means that we need to start proposing the most effective of economic stimulus plans, namely straight up jobs creation. It also means that we need to, for now, toss the least effective of economic stimuli, tax cuts and tax credits, onto the dust heap of history. We simply can't afford them at this point.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Rec from me. But you're in our version of "deficit spending"...

.....country ( i.e. below zero).

Touchy subject, it would appear.

[MadHound]

2. Yeah, I know.

But the fact of the matter is that this is a tough question that needs to be answered. Sure, people can ignore the question here, this post can drop like a rock. But liberals, both here and in the real world are asking this question and wanting an answer.

Why is Obama and the Dems following a course that has proven so disastrous in the past? Why aren't we, as a country, trying to get the most bang for our stimulus buck.

But alas, it looks like you're correct, a lot of people here don't want to touch this. Perhaps because they know, deep down, that this latest stimulus package is a boneheaded move and simply don't want to discuss something so embarrassing. Can't say that I blame them.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Says more about the country and human nature than the parties

Post-Vietnam/OPEC, we needed constant reassurance of our wealth and greatness, which was supposedly guaranteed for eternity after WWII. Tax cuts and deficit spending combined with an outsized military filled the bill, avoidance behavior on a massive scale that the average citizen still hasn't come to terms with. Reagan kicked it all off and the R's have been playing that game ever since, and we've been playing defense and not levelling with the people. But until they show signs that they want to be levelled with, we'll be playing a variation of the same game.

[MadHound]

4. Sorry, but I don't have as dismal a view of people in this country as you do,

At least those not on the conservative side of the fence. Liberals, leftists and Democrats have all called for a halt to this tax cutting madness, yet it continues apace under this administration.

We know what needs to be done, yet it seems impossible to move our leadership, our representatives to do the right thing.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Fritz Mondale told the truth, how did he do?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. Because Americans are stuck on stupid.

People don't like to admit it, but elected officials really do reflect them.

[MadHound]

7. So a politician should do what is worst for the country in order to reflect the people's wishes?

Talk about stupid, hell, talk about not giving a damn about your country. And frankly, I don't think that the majority of people are, at this point in time, dumb enough to want to continue to carry out the tax cut mantra.

[Fire1]

8. I don't think we're stuck on stupid as much as we don't have

much to work with from the beginning. There have been many candidates and elections over the years, in which I've not been impressed with ANY of them! We elect based upon the hand we're dealt!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. ...you also have the option of running. (nt)

[Fire1]

10. HA!! Not on your life! n/t

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. Yep. Why call it "stimulus" AGAIN after all we've been through. A major problem

for the Democratic Party historically has been the lack of a message or narrative. Why call it "stimulus"? Call it something else, for godsakes!!!

[MadHound]

12. Wow, the silence in here concerning this issue is deafening.

What, hoping that such embarrassing policies will disappear down the memory hole?