Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 12, 2009

Economics, math, supply and demand… these seem to be difficult, foreign concepts for people in the White House and Congress to grasp.

Their lack of comprehension and economic mistakes are beyond troubling. They’re destroying American enterprise and jobs are disappearing. I’m getting mad as hell. You should be, too.

Michelle Malkin: Grim milestone: Budget deficit hits $1 trillion

The stimulus/porkulus bill has been a disaster. Math that doesn’t work, hijacking our children’s and grandchildren’s futures, earmarks, and government screw-ups leading to outrageous waste… what’s not to hate?

Yanking untold billions from the US Treasury, increasing Americans’ taxes, borrowing billions from China, and running the money printing presses day and night does not make for a thriving, healthy economy. Capitalism is not a government machine and so, they keep gumming up the works and halting our economic recovery by trying to force and manipulate it.

Now, in desperation, Congress and the president want to throw more taxpayer money and Chinese loans at the problem. Well, Porkulus Senior hasn’t worked, and Porkulus Junior won’t, either. And we’re not even going to discuss the obvious: the blatant crony payoffs of billions of dollars and non-stimulus pork that were embedded in Porkulus Senior (that Obama assured us would not be there… another lie).

The Other McCain has written an excellent explanatory article that’s posted on Hot Air that points out the insanity of a second stimulus/porkulus bill: A Liberal Lecture on Economics (and Why It Won’t Work). Here are the first few paragraphs… be sure to read the rest:

The editors of The Washington Post demand to know why a second economic “stimulus” is needed. Dean Baker of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research hinges his reply on this analysis:

The collapse of the housing bubble led to a reduction in annual rates of construction of about $450 billion. The bubble in the non-residential sector is also in the process of collapsing, cutting annual demand by approximately $200 billion. The loss of $8 trillion in housing bubble wealth, coupled with a loss of roughly the same amount of stock wealth, is leading to a reduction in annual consumption of approximately $700 billion.

The total loss in demand is around $1,350 billion. The annual stimulus in the bill approved in February was around $300 billion. $300 billion in stimulus is not nearly enough to fill a $1,350 billion shortfall in demand.

Only a Keynesian could waltz past a tremendous fact like the loss of $16 trillion in asset value — Baker’s estimate of the combined losses in real estate and stock markets — to obsess about the “shortfall in demand,” which is the exclusive focus of his argument for a second “stimulus”…

More from Dean Baker, Beat the Press:

…That wouldn’t be a problem except that they feel so much need to expound on it. Today, they tell readers that: “those calling for an additional stimulus package must explain why this is not enough.”

Wow, haven’t they heard? I guess it’s hard to get news in the middle of Washington.

Anyhow, it works like this. (Warning, this part uses arithmetic.) The collapse of the housing bubble led to a reduction in annual rates of construction of about $450 billion. The bubble in the non-residential sector is also in the process of collapsing, cutting annual demand by approximately $200 billion. The loss of $8 trillion in housing bubble wealth, coupled with a loss of roughly the same amount of stock wealth, is leading to a reduction in annual consumption of approximately $700 billion.

The total loss in demand is around $1,350 billion. The annual stimulus in the bill approved in February was around $300 billion. $300 billion in stimulus is not nearly enough to fill a $1,350 billion shortfall in demand.

We’ll see if the Post editorial writers can follow that one.

From Burt Prelutsky, Big Hollywood: Time to Get Mad as Hell

…Even before grabbing up car companies and banks, [Obama] got the ball rolling with a trillion dollar, 1100-page pork-filled stimulus package that had to be passed, he insisted, within a few short hours or America was going to be turned into a pumpkin. Well, without anyone having had time to read anything but the price tag, it was passed into law. Obama then took his own sweet time signing it. In the months since its passage, the unemployment rate has soared, entire states are going belly up and, apparently, nobody seems to know what happened to the money.

Then there’s the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill, which started out in life at a thousand pages, and then had a 300-page amendment tacked on to it in the dead of night. It was as if Dr. Frankenstein, after carefully inspecting his nightmarish creation, decided that what the monster really needed was a second head and a hunchback. Again, nobody had time to read the bill, but that didn’t prevent 219 congressmen, including eight Republicans who scurried out from under a rock just long enough to make certain that Christmas, or perhaps I mean Ramadan, would come early for the President.

[...]

It’s almost enough to make a person pity Bernard Madoff. That poor shmuck got a 150-year prison sentence, and he only screwed Americans out of about 65 billion dollars.

Related posts:
Hot Air: Obama on stimulus: It’s worked great! and Obama staffers exhausted from grueling work of wasting trillions of dollars and White House: We’ll cut off criticism of Porkulus and Obama, the reverse Reagan and Video: The self-promotion stimulus and Stimulus fizzle has Democrats worried and Big banks saying no to California IOUs and Rasmussen “passion index” down to -8
Mere Rhetoric: WaPo: Obama Staffers The Bestest And Diligentest Staffers Ever. Especially That Gibbs Guy. He’s Super.
The Iowa Independent: Culver: Second federal stimulus not needed in Iowa
The Washington Times: GOP hits Pelosi for mouse funds
Innocent Bystanders: The Stimulus Package that Forgot to Stimulate Anything
New York Times: Doubts About Obama’s Economic Recovery Plan Rise Along With Unemployment
Washington Examiner: White House split on second stimulus
MoneyNews.com: $1 Trillion Later, What Does Obama Have to Show? Nothing
Jim Blazsik: The real reason behind the economic meltdown – government (particularly Democrats)
Barack’s Economic Plan – the people giveth, and the government taketh away…
Gateway Pundit: Unreal. With Unemployment at 9.5% Obama Says Stimulus Is Working
Michelle Malkin: Your TARP dollars at work and Sen. Coburn: Our Watchdog and Spawn of the Spendulus Updated and Document drop: Porkulus One is a failure, so let’s do it again! and Bailoutmania: Not “permanent.” Just forever… and Tim Geithner is a joke in China, too and Feds extend Crap Sandwich to life insurers and The Colin Powell endorsement: Triumph of hope over reality and White House pushing to gag stimulus critics and Cap and trade regulations: Do you trust this man?
The American Pundit: Poor Babies: Obama Staffers Exhausted by the Stress of Wasting Money
Neoavatara: Failure You Can Believe In: Obama Stimulus II
Fire Andrea Mitchell!: Wells Fargo sues………. ITSELF!
My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: Stimulus fallout
Hot Air Green Room: CNN Creates Misleading Headlines to Save Obama’s Credibility
Huffington Post: Obama Ineffective On The Economy: NYT/CBS News Poll
Scared Monkeys: Colin Powell Suddenly has Doubts on Obama Agenda … Americans Like Taxes … Can’t Afford Taxes
New York Times: Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care
Democratic Underground Headline: In Poll, Obama Is Seen as Ineffective on the Economy
Random-American: Biden says ‘everyone guessed wrong’ on the economic stimulus
Jim Geraghty, NRO: BARACK OBAMA, HORSERACE: Obama’s Approval Rating in Ohio Down to 49 Percent; 44 Percent Disapprove
Gateway Pundit: Palin Calls Obama’s Massive Spending & Economic Policies “Immoral”
The K Ryan James Blog: Hopenchange: A transparent lack of transparency
Stop The ACLU: Obama Tanks In Ohio
Gunservatively!: Son-of-a-Stimulus!
Wall Street Journal: Calls Grow to Increase Stimulus Spending
Right Pundits: Steny Hoyer: Second Stimulus Possible
America’s Watchtower: Obama Adviser Pushes For a Second Stimulus Bill
VotingFemale Speaks: Obama Hogzilla Stimulus Bill failed; Congress is scared; Senate hits brakes on Cap and Trade; Obama Distracted and Losing Traction
Right Pundits: Steny Hoyer: Second Stimulus Possible
The American Pundit: The Hypocritical Incompetence of Congress
Frugal Café Blog Zone: No More ‘Stimulus’ Packages: 60% of Americans Loudly Oppose Second Stimulus, Obama Now at -3 Approval and Where’s the Money, Obama?? Coburn Reveals 100 Instances of Gov’t Waste of Stimulus Package Money and Rep. Alan Grayson: Who Is Responsible for Monitoring the Losses Incurred by the Federal Reserve? and Majority of Americans Demand ‘Cancel the Porkulus Package Now’
Michael Barone, Rasmussen Reports: Getting Cold Feet Over Democratic Proposals
La Shawn Barber’s Corner: Why Barack Obama is Overrated (from 2006)
Confederate Yankee: “The Obama Administration is the Most Fiscally Irresponsible in the History of the U.S.”
Goodtimepolitics: Most Liberal States Are Least Free Says Study
Gateway Pundit: Dem Leader to GOP: If You Don’t Vote to Bankrupt Country With Libs You’re Unpatriotic

Categories: Conservatism, Economy, Government, Social and Political Climate
Tags: America, budget deficit, Congress, economic depression, economic free-fall, economy, Joe the Plumber, Obama, Obama money, political, politics, pork barrel spending, porkulus, stimulus bill, taxation, taxpayer, White House