- Joined
- Nov 18, 2016
- Messages
- 48,287
- Reaction score
- 25,554
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Liberal
After spending the last 8 years blocking every attempt by the Obama administration to invest in infrastructure and stimulating the economy, calling it big government Marxist tyranny, and going everything America stands for, and something that has been proven repeatedly not to work, etc... all of a sudden Keynesian economic stimulus seems to be all the rage among our conservative friends:
"“We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,” Trump said. “We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.”"
-Donald Trump
Oh, and what was that? Are you saying that Trump is not a real conservative, but some kind of RINO? What about Mr. Rush Limbaugh, who was falling all over himself to praise the new proposed stimulus plan?
"If Trump actually follows through on this trillion dollars to modernize airports, you’re gonna have conservative arguments against it claiming this is not how it works. This is still federal spending, it’s still budget busting, it’s still massively expanding the government. However, there will be tangible results that will result in improved and modernized airports, which will make them more economically booming, which they will then be able to attract more traffic, more landings and takeoffs, which include fees, more cargo being moved back and forth through them. So it’s gonna be an interesting philosophical argument. The idea of conservatism and smaller government, less government.
And then on the other hand, the projects we’re talking about . . . who builds them? I mean the federal government built the interstate highway system. It was a federal government expense. Same thing with those two bridges. They did it in connection with the states, I mean, there was, there was a lot of cooperation on all of these, the Hoover Dam in Nevada, and so forth. And there were other things. And don’t forget, even prior to that, we did the Panama Canal, even prior to the 1930s.
The point is, in the past, with a much smaller economy, and a much lower standard of living, we have been far more productive. We have built many more projects at a much faster rate before all the environmental impact studies were necessary, and all this. And if Trump does this and if there are witnessable, demonstrable results of modernization at airports, you’re gonna be hard-pressed to get people to find a problem with it."
-Rush Limbaugh
This is reminiscent of Glenn Beck, who, in September of 2008, as the chasm of the Great Recession was beginning to yawn before us but right before we knew Obama was going to be the next president, said of stimulus spending:
"“[W]e are in the middle of an all-out financial emergency, and emergencies have a way of really testing people. In normal times, under normal circumstances, if you tune in to me, you know me as somebody who would tell the federal government exactly where to take their bailout plans and shove it right up their you-know-what. But these are anything but normal times. I thought about it an awful lot this weekend, and while it takes me — it takes everything in me to say this, I think the bailout is the right thing do.
“The ‘Real Story’ is: The $700 billion that you’re hearing about now is not only, I believe, necessary, it is also not nearly enough, and all of the weasels in Washington know it.”
-Glenn Beck
Fast forward a few months, with Obama in the whitehouse, and all of a sudden Keynesian stimulus spending was the most evil communist tyrannical proposal ever.
Come on, guys. It's clear that it's not Keynesian stimulus that you have a problem with. It's just that you want YOUR guy to do it. It's not about ideology. It's just about power. You obstruct when you don't have it, and you push it when you do- the welfare and immediate needs of the country be dam-ed. Party before politics, right?
"“We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,” Trump said. “We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.”"
-Donald Trump
Oh, and what was that? Are you saying that Trump is not a real conservative, but some kind of RINO? What about Mr. Rush Limbaugh, who was falling all over himself to praise the new proposed stimulus plan?
"If Trump actually follows through on this trillion dollars to modernize airports, you’re gonna have conservative arguments against it claiming this is not how it works. This is still federal spending, it’s still budget busting, it’s still massively expanding the government. However, there will be tangible results that will result in improved and modernized airports, which will make them more economically booming, which they will then be able to attract more traffic, more landings and takeoffs, which include fees, more cargo being moved back and forth through them. So it’s gonna be an interesting philosophical argument. The idea of conservatism and smaller government, less government.
And then on the other hand, the projects we’re talking about . . . who builds them? I mean the federal government built the interstate highway system. It was a federal government expense. Same thing with those two bridges. They did it in connection with the states, I mean, there was, there was a lot of cooperation on all of these, the Hoover Dam in Nevada, and so forth. And there were other things. And don’t forget, even prior to that, we did the Panama Canal, even prior to the 1930s.
The point is, in the past, with a much smaller economy, and a much lower standard of living, we have been far more productive. We have built many more projects at a much faster rate before all the environmental impact studies were necessary, and all this. And if Trump does this and if there are witnessable, demonstrable results of modernization at airports, you’re gonna be hard-pressed to get people to find a problem with it."
-Rush Limbaugh
This is reminiscent of Glenn Beck, who, in September of 2008, as the chasm of the Great Recession was beginning to yawn before us but right before we knew Obama was going to be the next president, said of stimulus spending:
"“[W]e are in the middle of an all-out financial emergency, and emergencies have a way of really testing people. In normal times, under normal circumstances, if you tune in to me, you know me as somebody who would tell the federal government exactly where to take their bailout plans and shove it right up their you-know-what. But these are anything but normal times. I thought about it an awful lot this weekend, and while it takes me — it takes everything in me to say this, I think the bailout is the right thing do.
“The ‘Real Story’ is: The $700 billion that you’re hearing about now is not only, I believe, necessary, it is also not nearly enough, and all of the weasels in Washington know it.”
-Glenn Beck
Fast forward a few months, with Obama in the whitehouse, and all of a sudden Keynesian stimulus spending was the most evil communist tyrannical proposal ever.
Come on, guys. It's clear that it's not Keynesian stimulus that you have a problem with. It's just that you want YOUR guy to do it. It's not about ideology. It's just about power. You obstruct when you don't have it, and you push it when you do- the welfare and immediate needs of the country be dam-ed. Party before politics, right?
