a3ba685e   
   XPost: alt.politics.media, alt.america, alt.politics.economics   
   XPost: alt.society.labor-unions   
   From: arthures@mv.com   
      
   On Tue, 12 Oct 2010, Abel wrote:   
      
   > How insane do you have to be to think that repression is freedom, and   
   > to think that good is bad, and to think that up is down, and to think   
   > that big is small?  This is the "reality" which the conservative   
   > mindset is constantly espousing, it is a self serving hypocricy,   
   > driven almost exlusively by a conservative leaning media. that rails   
   > ad nauseum about how the "government is too big" and how "we need to   
   > rein in wasteful government spending" and all that other nonesense,   
   > except that they never seemed to have noticed how big our government   
   > was and how restricted our freedoms were under the previous Republican   
   > President, with Homeland Security and the bloated military budget and   
   > all that.   
      
   The other problem is that the conservatives don't think DoD budgets are   
   "govt spending" but a sacred cow.   
      
       Ever since Democrats came to power in 2008, Republicans   
   > have been railing about how we've expanded the size of government to   
   > unprecedented levels (which is a lie), and then the conservative wing-   
   > nuts go on to argue that this proves that government can not solve the   
   > unemployment problem (another lie).   
      
   Conservatives are the ones who think all problems will be solved if we do   
   just one thing: make rich people richer.   
      
   > Here's the truth,  Democrats have actually reduced the size of   
   > government, otherwise the employment picture would be a lot better.   
   > Our military is spending less now than what we were spending under the   
   > Bush years, and the American people have more freedom to dissent now   
   > than under the Bush years, and aside from the Wall Street bail out   
   > money (most of which has been paid back already), we really have NOT   
   > had the big type of government programs needed to create the millions   
   > of jobs that us Democrats would like to create.   
      
   Gates was talking about a $100 bil cut in DoD budget over next ten years.   
      
   > There has not really been any new major federal programs started up   
   > since the Democrats came to power.  The Republican wing-nuts on FOX et   
   > al keep pointing to health care reform as a program which proves that   
   > big government does not work, but these guys are crazy because health   
   > care reform has not even kicked in yet.  There are no giant   
   > infrastructure projects, there are no huge new benefits programs for   
   > the poor.  Granted, spending on food stamps and on unemployment   
   > insurance has gone up, but that's only because the Republicans have so   
   > badly messed up our economy with their tax cuts for the rich and their   
   > immoral policies of encouraging outsourcing and all the rest of it,   
   > that we've got a situation now where there's a huge surge in the   
   > number of Americans who have lost their jobs.  You can't blame us   
   > Democrats for this, we are the ones SOLVING the problem, THEY are the   
   > ones who are CREATING the problems.   
      
   We've also got to cut back on the "free ride" of jobs being taken OUT of   
   the USA and handed on a silver platter to 3rd world countries...   
      
      
   Its an easy estimate based on the following simple assumptions:   
      
   $ 800 billion moving average US trade deficit (get this number from   
   almost anywhere, I got it from recent issue of Finacial Times).   
      
   Lets use $10,000 USD as "average" annual wage on non-US territory (eg. 3rd   
   world).   
      
   Compute: 800,000,000,000 divided by:   
      
                       10,000 (per employee)   
      
                  80,000,000 jobs   
      
   And, the job multiplier is greater in the 3rd world than first world, then   
   the number of jobs in foreign countries, supported by the US economy, is   
   much greater than 80 million.   
      
   And, this is why we're having such trouble (compared to everyone else in   
   the world) getting out of this Great Recession (brought on by our glorious   
   but greedy-selfish financial services industry [eg. Lehman, AIG, Bear   
   Stearns, etc.], and FDI into 3rd world with cheap exchange rates by our   
   US rich investors).   
      
   And, all that money from the rich guys ....going into rapidly expanding   
   3rd world economies because their ROI is bigger, and _not_ going into our   
   own local USA economy for investment, development, upgrades, new   
   construction.   
      
   All a big free ride to the 3rd world countries. On a silver plater. ROI to   
   US rich (a few percent, at most, of all the people [maybe helping a few   
   pension funds, though]).   
      
   "Cheap prices at Walmart" doesn't count when 20% of our population is   
   either unemployed or underemployed.   
      
   P.S. Europe's trade deficit moving average with China, in recent 2-3   
   years, is half of US trade deficit (from recent issue of Financial Times).   
      
   (Oct 9, 2010)   
      
   /////////////////////////////   
      
   > If you look at the previous administration, they DID create big   
   > bureaucracies and major new government programs, several Homeland   
   > Security Agencies for one, and then there's the Medicare prescription   
   > drug programs that benefitted mainly the big pharmaceutical   
   > companies.  Democrats have done no such thing to warrant this "big   
   > government" accusation.  If Republicans want to argue that "big   
   > government" is the worst thing in the world, then they should look at   
   > themselves in the mirror some time.  Republicans represent "big   
   > government" in the worste way, they represent big corrupt government   
   > that coddles big corrupt business and a big government that runs   
   > counter to what the voting public wants.   
   >   
   > As a matter of fact, for the last 2 years, the number of government   
   > workers have been falling, not rising.  This is mainly due to the   
   > recession, which has led to sharp declines at the state and local   
   > level. Total government payrolls have fallen by more than a quarter   
   > million people since January 2009.   
   >   
   > Government also employs workers indirectly when it buys goods and   
   > services from the private sector, but government purchases of goods   
   > and services have gone up only by 3 percent over the last two years (a   
   > pace that is slower than that of the previous two years, and slower   
   > than the economy's normal rate of growth).   
   >   
   > It is true that Congress enacted a stimulus bill in early 2009, but   
   > this did NOT translate into a big rise in government spending, the   
   > stimulus wasn't actually all that big compared with the size of the   
   > U.S. economy.  Of the more than $600 billion cost of the Recovery Act   
   > in 2009 and 2010, about half of it was paid for via tax cuts, while   
   > the rest consisted of aid to state and local governments.  Very little   
   > of it involved direct federal spending.   
   >   
   > States and cities were forced into drastic spending cuts, more than   
   > offsetting the modest increase at the federal level.   
   >   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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