Let’s say you were having a problem with your knee. So you go to the doctor and tell him your problem. The doctor examines you and says he has to act quickly. He says you need an operation and if you have it, you will experience some mild pain for a brief time, but if you don’t the pain will get worse. How bad you ask? On the pain scale, designed by Andrea Mankoski, you are currently at a 6, described as, “Can’t be ignored for any length of time, but you can still go to work and participate in social activities.” He says without the operation you will probably reach a 9, “Unable to speak. Crying out or moaning uncontrollably — near delirium.” With the operation you will probably peak at 8, “Physical activity severely limited; you can read and converse with effort; nausea and dizziness set in as factors of pain,” but then things will progressively improve. The pressure he is putting on you to decide is intense, so you give him the go ahead.
The good doctor performs the operation and as he predicted the pain does get worse, but it doesn’t stop. You are beyond delirium, you are reaching level 10, “Unconscious. Pain makes you pass out.” Your medical proxy, demands the doctor tell her what went wrong. The doctor shrugs and says it was worse than anybody thought, but then says the surgery is working better than expected. ”What the hell did you do in that surgery, you screw-up?” your proxy demands. The doctor, just smiles, and turns on his heel ands walks away, leaving your proxy standing there sputtering, desperately trying to find the words to express her disbelief and outrage. When she finally regains her composure, standing there all alone, she reaches for her cell phone to call a malpractice attorney.
Economic Stimulus Surgery
Dr. Obama told us, upon taking office, that we desperately needed a stimulus package or the unemployment rate would continue to rise. He said without a stimulus package, the unemployment rate would rise to 9%, if we did NOTHING! His able assistants, Harry “the Healer” Reid, and “Nurse” Nancy Pelosi, slammed through the $787 billion package. We were saved! Unemployment would not rise above 8% before starting to fall. But there isn’t a happy ending to this fairy tale. The unemployment rate rose past 8%; it rose past 9%; it rose past 10%. So when Dr. Biden steps to the microphone and says the stimulus is working better than expected, why isn’t someone putting a straight-jacket on him and carting him off? Why isn’t someone pointing out that the stimulus may have actually made the problem worse? Team Obama said themselves that it would have been better to do nothing. The unemployment rate would have peaked at 9%. Why are they getting pass?
Non-stimulating Stimulus
Look more closely at the stimulus, which we now have had time to do. Extending unemployment benefits does not create jobs. Giving teachers a raise, does not create jobs. Spending 80% of the stimulus funds so far in the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education doesn’t speak to job creation. It speaks to a sop to their union backers and the creation of their impossible to measure metric “jobs saved.” Only $4 billion so far has gone to the Department of Transportation and their “shovel ready” projects. Even these, while a help to construction workers, doesn’t do a thing for laid off bank tellers, software engineers, or FedEx employees.
The Obama administration is spending us into oblivion, while pouring gasoline on to the unemployment fire with their ill conceived and basically botched stimulus plans. What is needed are tax cuts that will allow the market to direct the resources where they will do the most good and get the economy moving again. Instead Obama is taxing and spending our way to economic disaster. What we need is a sharp curtailment in government spending and to shrink the size of the federal beast. Is there a good economic malpractice trial lawyer out there?
