By Carter Bundy
The federal stimulus package is like nothing we’ve ever seen, and for a reason: We’re in times like we’ve never seen (unless you’re an octogenarian or nonagenarian, of course).
I have mixed feelings about it. Anyone concerned with our deficits would have to. Part of me agrees with Heath (click here to read that column) that the whole thing is crazy — spending hundreds of billions to get us out of a recession/borderline depression that was largely caused by the last administration’s insane fiscal irresponsibility.
But part of me also knows when I’m in over my head, and since a strong majority of economists — liberal and conservative — all agree that some stimulus is needed to arrest our economic death spiral, I defer on this one.
We’ve been absurdly profligate over the last eight years, and it’s been in the worst ways possible. Spending on corporate giveaways, cutting revenue from people who have more than their great-great-great grandkids will ever need, spending on blowing things up unnecessarily (incurring plenty of future rebuilding costs while we’re at it), all while doing nothing positive for the economy, our future, our safety or regular people.
So now we’re in this death spiral, and someone wants to spend it on building, creating, investing, and improving everything from health to education to green energy to roads and bridges. Many of which will directly put people to work.
Given how much of a hole we’re in, it seems like (to mix metaphors) a Hail Mary isn’t that out of the question, especially when so many people of different economic and political philosophies agree on the bulk of the package.
They may disagree on some specific projects or even areas of concentration (tax cuts vs. mortgage subsidies vs. shovel-ready projects vs. unemployment or health-coverage extension, etc.), but most everyone who knows this stuff much better than I thinks there has to be a big jolt that can only come, one way or the other, from the government.
I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t all make me feel queasy, and I think anyone in either party who tells you that any action is guaranteed to save us isn’t shooting straight. But I’m more persuaded right now that there’s even a greater chance of full-blown collapse if we don’t do something dramatic.
In the defense of those of us in favor of a stimulus, at least on the more liberal side, had we pursued the same rates of taxation and expenditures under Bill Clinton, we wouldn’t be anywhere near the dire straits we’re in.
Instead, we’re in an absolutely horrible situation with no real good choices, and I am willing to try the opposite of what W and the GOP have done. The anti-government, anti-regulation folks are the ones who put W and the GOP Congress in charge for years, so they’re going to have to root for America to get out of their mess by watching us pursue a different route.
Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in New Mexico. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com.