Noël Jones, my independent friend over at Easton Neighbors, decided last Friday to attend a monthly meeting of the Lehigh Valley Tea Party. In a well-written post, she describes a large group of very engaged citizens whose participation extends far beyond those monthly meetings.I've seen it myself. I've attended three of their monthly meetings and can plainly see that, contrary to the negative caricatures painted by our mainstream media, most members are pretty much the same as the rest of us.
True, they are a bit older, a bit whiter and a lot more conservative. But they are mostly decent people who care about their government. As they should. Forty per cent of the money spent by the Obama administration this year is borrowed money, yet most Americans seem to favor additional spending.
What seems to have struck Noël the most was the civil reception she received. "If our congressional members could only engage nationally in discussion and debate as civilly as seems possible on the local level, we might actually make some progress in this country."
Well said, Noël.
I don't know why you're still having trouble understanding this. The problem facing the economy is a big drop in nominal spending. The correct policy response is more deficit spending to make up the gap, and restart the circular flow of income. If Americans want more spending on jobs, they're right! That is also what Ben Bernanke thinks Congress needs to do. The Tea Party people who think we need to cut spending in the middle of the slump are wrong. That would make the jobs crisis even worse.
ReplyDeleteGeeting is correct, of course, and so is "Helicopter" (i.e. drop worthless money from a helicopter to stimulate spending to the point of inflation)Ben Bernanke.
ReplyDeleteEvery sane adult who knows how to properly manage their money knows the best thing to do when times are tough and funds are tight is to run up lots debt you have no plan to pay for.
After two years of calamitous flailing by a professorial administration nearly devoid of anyone from the business community, Geeting gets credit for going down with his ship of fools. Now tell us why we should have re-elected Jimmy Carter.
Circular flow? Ah, there's Geeting's problem. He can't understand that money isn't a stable commodity and does not grow on trees. Value is created by innovation, ingenuity, toil and risk. Just ask Geeting where the first dollars came from. He assumes it was always there and is simply to be rearranged as part of a circular flow. Anyone with a working commode knows what happens to one's circular flow.
ReplyDeleteThe cluelessness of the Anonymous commenter is revealed immediately with the analogy between the federal budget and a household budget. There's no connection. A household can't print and borrow money in its own currency. The US government very much can.
ReplyDeleteNone of these Tea people have a coherent explanation for how cutting spending in the middle of the slump is supposed to produce growth.
ReplyDeleteJonathan, How do you know that? Have you attended any of their meetings? Have you spoken to them? They beat you up, but you beat them up, too. I disagree with about 60% of what I hear from them, but respect and admire their involvement in the process. I think they are a positive force. I know you are very involved in your own way, and admire and respect that, too. Sometime next year, a group of us, from centrists to liberal to diehard conservatives, should get together in person instead of on a blog. I bet we'll find wehave much in common.
ReplyDeleteThe way you have torn on good people who don't praise your mancrushes, that sounds like a pretty boring conversation.
ReplyDeleteWhy would any of the decent knowledgeable people you have defamed want to sit at a table with you.
It will just end up being you and your reflections.
A household may borrow money. It's done all the time. Printing worthless money is illegal for households, and should be for the federal government. That's how we got into this mess. Households and governments have income and expenses. Even European hammock states have been lecturing Obama about his breathtaking deficit spending and its harmful impact on the world's economy.
ReplyDeleteGeeting:
ReplyDeleteSo... the Federal Government should print enough money to make all of us rich, and we can then run that money in a circle for years, keeping all of us rich!
Wow! Now I get it! I am not having trouble understanding it now!
Thanks Jon.
P. S. Have you thought about running for the US Senate?