The headlines would have us believe that Republicans oppose and Democrats advocate stimulus programs, despite the fact that many Republicans supported bailout and stimulus programs when George W. Bush was in the White House. After all, almost all Republicans voted against the gargantuan stimulus bill that President Obama and the congressional Democratic leadership lobbied strongly for.
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But now House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) says he is more than willing to sit down with the White House and congressional Democrats to discuss any new emergency spending proposals. He also says that any new proposals would have to be different from the recently enacted stimulus package and include tax cuts for small business.
Cantor says that any discussion on a new stimulus package implies that the first one hasn’t worked. “With the announcement that Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Obey are working on a new stimulus plan, obviously they’ve seen what they did, didn’t work. Inherent in that announcement is an admission that the stimulus bill didn’t work,” he argues. But the solution he offers is not to abandon stimulus programs; his solution is to come up with new stimulus legislation that would be different from the recently enacted stimulus.
“Perhaps now if they’re going back and putting another stimulus bill out there, that they will take some of our suggestions and focus the efforts on small business people around this country, that’s how we’re going to create the jobs,” spoke the Whip on CNN. Cantor wants tax cuts for small business, but cutting taxes without cutting spending (which is what most Republicans have been advocating in their stimulus debate with Democrats) will not reduce the economic burden of government on the American people. It will simply mean that the government will create more inflation by borrowing more money that’s created out of thin air via the Federal Reserve. Of course, if a new stimulus bill is enacted that combines Republican-supported tax cuts with even more spending, then both the annual federal deficits and the inflation that results from financing those deficits would become even worse.
In order to cover the kind of debt Congress is creating, they must print more and more money, exponentially increasing inflation and further debasing the currency until it completely collapses. If an individual were to try to do this, he would be convicted of counterfeiting and sent to jail. When the feds do it, it’s called an economic stimulus.
With the national debt now at $11 trillion, and with a rough estimate that the Obama administration is spending a gargantuan $1 billion per hour since inauguration day, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ remarks about the stimulus package having “a concrete impact,” is spot on — as in the proverbial millstone being affixed around our collective necks.
