Michael Hirsh on the Stimulus/Debt/Pork package [h/t Instapundit]:
When you are dealing with a stimulus of this size, there are going to be wasteful expenditures and boondoggles. There’s no way anyone can spend $800 to $900 billion quickly without waste and boondoggles. It comes with the Keynesian territory. This is an emergency; the normal rules do not apply.
From the Newsweek cover story, “Bush’s $87 Billion Mess“, November 3, 2003:
For Bush, the political challenges are growing just as rapidly. Having made one of the most fateful decisions in the modern presidency — to try to remake the Middle East, starting with Iraq — he has no choice but to press ahead with his request for the $87 billion, even if it is unpopular, reports Chief Political Correspondent Howard Fineman.
Six months ago, the Bush administration decided to cut corners on normal bidding procedures and hand over large postwar reconstruction contracts to traditional defense contractors on a limited-bid or no-bid basis. It bypassed the Iraqis and didn’t worry terribly much about accountability to Congress. The plan was for a “blitzkrieg” reconstruction. But by sacrificing accountability for speed, America is not achieving either very well right now report Correspondent-at-Large Rod Nordland and Senior Editor Michael Hirsh.
So we need strict oversight and a plodding pace in a war zone where people are dying every hour, but we need to throw accountability and thoughtfulness overboard when dealing with a program that represents just an acceleration of run-of-the-mill government spending?
Wars are just one wasteful, stupid, clusterf*ck after another and not even the strongest proponent of any particular war will tell you any different. Do we want to make this the standard for our day-to-day government spending?
Ha. You should see Newsweek’s latest on “Losing Control”: http://www.newsweek.com/id/183204
The GOP are “meanies” who are stalling the “stimulus” bill out of spite. Such ridiculous in-the-tank analysis that I counldn’t even get angry over their wilfull distortions – I was laughing too hard. I would compare Newseek to Pravda, but that would be unfair.
Another demonstration of the emergence of “Obamapologia.”
As InstaPundit comments: “Not every war. Just Bush’s wars.”
There is so much money ready to be blasted into the economy by the ObamaNauts that all we have to do is stand back and watch it stick…everywhere but where it will do any good! Our savings are already practically destroyed by the market crash, the coming inflation will finish the job, and then we’ll ALL be ready for the second dose. And why not? The important things like condoms and health maintenance for illegals seem like small potatoes when we could finally beg some for ourselves and NOT have to cop an IRS 1099 for it. And like Dashlow, we’ll just start not paying. Everything is at risk and the politicians have nothing to offer. Why can’t government be forced to issue 1099’s for all they dispense? Because we don’t DEMAND!
Could we have expected any more (or less) from Michael Hirsh? Obama is largely a creation of the MSM so he must, shall, and forever henceforth be “too big to fail.”
I read Michael Hirsh’s article and my reaction, like one of the other commenters here, was laughter. He’s merely a guy publishing for guys who think exactly what he thinks, nothing more. Just an apologist and a hack.
“The normal rules don’t apply.” Isn’t this what got us into this fiasco in the first place? Normal rules like “you shouldn’t rely on an ever-increasng value of your real estate to estimate ability to repay your mortgage loan” or even the more prosaic “a home is worth 100 times its monthly rent.”
Mark J is absolutely right: he’s a creation of the MSM, and they have to prop each other up at all costs. But eventually reality settles upon even the most fanciful.
I believe too that Pres. Obama is a creation of MSM. And everything has to materialized otherwise He’ll be the biggest Kahuna to Fail!