Democrats and economic ignorance

It is time to clamber through the charred landscape left us after the presidency of Dick Cheney and George Bush. The republic survived, though in far worse shape than when those ignorant ideologues seized power. Long live the republic.

But the dangers are ever present and never past, and now they come in the form of tired liberals of shallow knowledge of economics like Nancy Pelosi, or Ted Kulongoski. They come in the form of pay back schemes from left-leaning power centers like the unions, who believe that since they put Obama in power, they should now get theirs.

These need to be resisted. And there is hope. See this column by conservative writer David Brooks of the New York Times.

People, you have to know how good it feels to be in the center, shooting at both left and right. Of course, both sides are firing back, so being in the middle means you have to dodge twice as fast. But it's good to swing the gun around in a new direction.

Back to the topic: The Democrats under Pelosi played politics with the stimulus bill, in exactly the same way that Cheney/Bush played politics with legislation following 9/11. They loaded it with ideological non-sequiters. Paybacks and pay-offs. They took advantage of their position and the situation.

Cheney / Bush did it under the guise of external threat and patriotism. Pelosi and ilk are doing it under the cover of economic crisis. It is the same thing, from a different direction. It is politics as usual.

And it is no more honest, and no more fair or right or proper or effective, pick an adjective. A stimulus plan is needed. More than a half million people lost their jobs last month. Unemployment is over 7 percent. It hits 10 percent and we have social unrest.

And those people without jobs need health insurance. They need extended unemployment benefits. They do not need family planning advice. They do not need more grass seed on the National Mall. We do not need to spend the $100 million (over 10 years) on 150 new state troopers (absolutely no value added to Oregon) that Kulongoski ramrodded a couple of years ago.

Instead, how about widening the bridge over Squaw Creek (sorry) in Sisters, Oregon? How about a power generation plant near Madras, Oregon using wind, solar, and natural gas? How about every Oregonian come up with a project that (1) would put men and women to work and (2) would be a long term investment in Oregon.

Pork is not investment. Protectionism is a failed economic strategy. Stronger unions can destroy the productivity needed for us to work our way out of this economic crevasse that we all slid into together thinking that we could borrow money to buy things we didn't need and couldn't afford.

The illusion that government can fix this without our paying the bill is false. The bill on the government bailout will still need be paid.

Unfortunately, it will be paid by our children, my twin girls, and your children, by a reduction in their standard of living. Added to that bill will be our medicare and our social security and the war in Iraq.

It is a crushing burden, actually, and I am a little ashamed about it. We could have done so much better for them. We should have done so much better. But what is done is done, and the goal now is to start the process of recovery and not make it worse.