Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tweeting The Stimulus Bill

Some interesting and amusing things on Twitter’s economic stimulus thread. Such as:
lmor: RT @JTTallman: There goes my generations financial security, don't really know what the crowd is cheering about!!

Dude, you’re just now noticing the deficit? Who do you think paid for all the cheering for Bush’s tax cuts and the war in Iraq? Don’t you guys remember? Deficits don’t matter! "Reagan proved it.”

And this:

DDoutel: @Adrigonzo that's why my family is converting all investments to gold coin.

That was a great idea ... a few years ago. Remember: buy low, sell high. Gold is high now.

Look, you can whine and bitch and moan all you want, and I'm in there with you to a point. But facts are facts. Bill Clinton left us with a budget surplus, which George W. Bush squandered on his vanity war and tax cuts. We’re now in an economic mess as a result and unfortunately it looks like we're going to have to dig ourselves into a deeper fiscal hole in order to dig our way out.

I don't like it either but when I was complaining about the budget deficit back when unemployment was only 4% and our banks were still solvent, you were telling me that deficits don't matter:

Which brings us to the economic level. The deficits that Bush ran up in the years in which the country was teetering on the verge of a serious recession had the beneficial effect of righting the economy. In that sense, deficits not only didn't matter, but were a force for economic good.

Gosh, I forgot: deficits don't matter when it's Republicans doing the deficiting.

Look, no one--no one--is buying this sudden concern with fiscal responsibility from you guys. It’s been non-existent for the past eight years.

Deficits do matter. But at a certain point they matter less than other factors, like employment and productivity. Right now people need jobs. We'll have to worry about the deficit mess later. And it's all. your. fault.