Thursday, July 09, 2009

The definition of insanity.

If it doesn't work, do it again, only harder!

Of course "doesn't work" is subjective. If you were expecting it to boost the economy and make life better for the average American, then it is indeed not working so hot*, but if you were expecting to use it as a tool for dispensing patronage and arrogating yet more power to the fed.gov, then it's working like gangbusters.


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*Indeed, it can't work so hot, as anyone who has tried to fill a swimming pool by drawing buckets of water out of one end and dumping them in the other could tell you.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

If little Japan can do TEN (10) stimulus bills during their lost decade (remember last month's Reason?), then, by golly, the USA better do fifteen! USA, USA, USA!

Besides, anyone who's played Third Reich or The Russian Campaign know that you always attack gains made during the initial offensive.

Shootin' Buddy

the pawnbroker said...

here i thought i'd caught you in a rare misspelling and an even rarer miscontexting of "abrogating"...

turns out "arrogating" is a correctly spelled and perfectly used term that i was not aware of, and i consider myself fairly well-vocabularyed...i shoulda knowed better.

don't come around this place if you don't wanna learn something now and then; like old dogs, apparently even old farts can be further educated.

as for the addendum, i dunno...seems more that those buckets are scooping what's left of the stagnant contents of my little pond and, after sloshing out three-quarters of it on the trip, dumping the rest right down the toilet...oh well, at least the drainfield is green.

jtc

jtc

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Tam, I'd argue that the swimming pool analogy, while good, needs modification. It's more like drawing two buckets out of one end, dumping one bucket on the ground, and then pouring the other bucket into the other end.

You have to account for the interest somehow.

Anonymous said...

Patronage? Patronage? I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Definitely time to change the label from Obamination to Pander Bear: Pander to the UAW for past and present votes, and pander to Wall Street for all the campaign funds.

In the meantime, ever-lessening consumer spending is costing jobs. That's causing more delinquincies in paying mortgages and credit cards. Commercial real estate is already going down the drain, and the resets on AltA mortgages, etc., are coming along--with more foreclosures.

And all that these silly twits can do is holler, "Me no Alamo, me no Goliad!"--which is a lie--and keep on printing paper money.

They're too dumb to be doing this on purpose...

Aren't they?

Art

T.Stahl said...

Today's politicians make someone like Münchhausen actually look...

...honest.

Steve said...

The Keynesian bozos who think we simply haven't stimulated enough are cut from the same cloth as the disarmers who think we have "gun violence" (their stupid phrase) because we don't yet have enough "common sense gun laws".

They don't care about what works, they simply are using the crisis of the day to push for their tyranny of choice.

Joanna said...

Remember the kid who would do something stupid and hurt himself, and then do it again because he must not have done it right the first time? Yeah, he's in charge now. We're all screwed.

Russ said...

This is rather similar to reading criticism of a doctor who gave his patient with the flu a decongestant and antibiotics. Well, yeah, the antibiotics are mostly wasted. But I have to ask what's your problem with the dayquil? That stimulus package included tax cuts. A large part was tax cuts. Now, yeah we will 99.999% have to pay those taxes later. But that just makes them deferred taxes.

Tam said...

Russ,

Gee I'd love to see your data.

Jon said...

Russ...

Do tell me where you found a tax CUT in the 700 billion dollar 'stimulus' (spending money we hadn't even given the government yet). If you're referencing the 'stimulus checks' of the Bush years, you need to get your recent history checked. While those didn't work, and we knew it wouldn't work...

The 700 billion dollars we are not spending the majority of til 2010 will definately work better if we add another 700 billion we still don't have.

*sigh*

Good analogy btw Tam.

also
Word Verification:
Spoomblu

What happens when the recipient realizes just what BS you're feeding him on that spoon....

Steve Skubinna said...

So what you're saying, Tam, is that we need more buckets?

And T. Stahl, munchausen is a pretty apt comparison, except what the economy is suffering is munchhausen-by-proxy.

NattyBumpo said...

Why JUST today, I was at lunch with my Dear Old Dad. DOD asked if I had received my stimulating $250.00? I had no idea what he was talking about. Seems that the only people to get them are former educators. At least based on the sample size of the three people that he knows of that got them. Him, his wife, and one of the people he used to work with at the State of WA Superintendents office.

Russ said...

Funny, the stimulus resulted in my paycheck growing about $80 per month just 2-3 months ago. It's the reduced withholding for the reduced taxes. It accounts for over a third of the total stimulus package passed. Do a google search on the bill that was passed.

Tam said...

Russ,

To put it as politely as possible, you are a gullible moron. The $700,000,000,000 figure is all paid-outs; it doesn't count your extra $80/month. The various "shovel-ready" pork projects aren't being paid for with "tax cuts". There are grown-ups talking here, take your talking points elsewhere.

Russ said...

Glad to see an honest dialog here. I'll be sure to stick up for all you believe in and fight for when my gullible ass votes. Insulting someone when there is a dispute on the facts makes your case, and philosophy look weak.

Tam said...

"Insulting someone when there is a dispute on the facts makes your case, and philosophy look weak."

You're right.

On issues where there's any dispute on the facts, I promise not to insult you, cretin.

Steve Skubinna said...

Russ, your gullible ass already voted, and made the mess worse, thanks for nothing.