They Just Don't Get It (Bernie Horn)

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Bernie Horn

February 5th, 2009 - 11:48pm ET-- Right now, conservative U.S. senators—both Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats—are thrashing around trying to cut pieces out of President Obama’s economic recovery plan. They say it costs too much. Ironically, these are the same senators who increased the legislation by more than $100 billion just a couple of days ago

They just don’t get it.

We’re in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans are losing their jobs—almost 600,000 in the month of January alone, 3.6 million since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. If we act quickly and boldly, we can prevent the return of soup kitchens and shantytowns. But the longer Congress delays, the worse our economy will be. {xtypo_quote_right} Some senators complain that the Obama plan won’t pump money into the economy fast enough. But the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that 94 percent of the spending in the Senate version of the economic recovery legislation would be spent over the next two years. Under the House version, 85 percent would be spent in two years. That’s hugely efficient—more stimulating to the economy, in fact, than any of the substitutes proposed. {/xtypo_quote_right}

They just don’t get it.

Our gross domestic product (GDP) is dropping like an anvil in a Roadrunner cartoon, and if we don’t do something now, millions of Americans will be flattened. The banks don’t have money to lend, so the economy can’t be invigorated by the private sector. The Federal Reserve has already lowered interest rates to near zero, so the economy can’t be invigorated by monetary policy. Tax cuts? Been there, done that. They failed to bring broad prosperity during the Bush years, and they would spectacularly fail to address the underlying problems in the economy now. There is only one solution—deficit spending by the federal government.

They just don’t get it.

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