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Last week I sort of apologized for being old-fashioned. This week, I’m still old-fashioned, but with a new message: Attention, Youngsters: You’d better get old-fashioned, too, and wake up to what us older people are doing to you!

It’s all about this sudden, emergency, lookout-here-we-come Economic Stimulus plan to avoid a recession, a mere $150 billion. Remember some years ago when they had a regular TV show of Senator Everett Dirkson and Rep. Charlie Halleck of Indiana, called the “Ev and Charlie Show?” The only memorable thing that ever came out of it was once when they were talking (like old-time Republicans) lamenting all the millions of dollars the government was spending, and Ev ended by saying, “Well, a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about big money!” We thought that was funny, but now it’s ONE HUNDRED FIFTY BILLION at one splat!

It’s billed as a tax rebate plan, but gradually it’s morphing into more of a “free money for everybody” plan. As soon as the “rebate” plan was announced, the retirees’ lobby popped up asking, “How about us?” And why not? If couples making up to $150,000 a year get a payout, why not couples living on nothing but Social Security? And if $150 billion makes everybody happy, wouldn’t they be even happier with $300 billion?

I think back to when I was in college (and I was an economics major, although I can’t remember anything about it), when we first learned about federal deficit financing. President Roosevelt was running up a big deficit during the thirties to fight the depression. And I do remember asking the ec professor, “How are we going to pay this back?” And he replied, “Don’t worry about it; we’ll pay it when the economy turns around.” That was the doctrine first proclaimed by the sainted John Maynard Keynes – how to fight depressions at the bottom of the business cycles. And usually the experts would then add: “Anyway, we’re only borrowing money from ourselves.” Do you suppose that answer still holds now that we’re borrowing from the Chinese?

Well, now we’re converting Keynesian theory by attacking a business cycle from the top. To help out, the GOP leadership is cooperating with the Dems and George W. is trying to out-do FDR in deficit financing. He already has pushed through income tax cuts, mostly favoring the well-to-do, now we’re going to try rebates (cuts on top of cuts) he wants to keep permanent, and of course, we’re still running a ghastly expensive war on credit. That will all have to be repaid later, probably to the Chinese.

Are you listening, grandchildren?

They say this economic stimulus was necessary because the symptoms showed we were headed downhill, maybe even into a recession. That sort of thing makes pols’ hair stand on end — for two reasons: We don’t want to take our lumps anymore in a normal business cycle, and even worse, if we did, the voters might throw the rascals out (the guys in office now).

Back in the FDR era, his guru Harry Hopkins was known for his malaprop explaining why the Dems were successful, saying they stayed in power by “Tax-Tax-Tax, Spend-Spend-Spend, Elect-Elect-Elect”. Nowadays, both sides seem to have bought into the same conjury, except now they’ve substituted Rebate for Tax. In other words, don’t pay now for our prosperity. Let future generations pay for it.

Are you listening, grandchildren? Maybe it’s time for you to be old-fashioned.

–Vic Jose

Vic Jose :: Jan.29.2008 :: Uncategorized ::

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