On Oct 2, 2008, at 9:35 AM, John Williams wrote: > Dave Land <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Bloomburg article: > >>> ``This is how Washington works,'' said Keith Ashdown, chief >>> investigator at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington research >>> group. ``A big pot of pork is their recipe for final passage.'' >> >> I haven't read the bill (at 451 pages, I doubt that anyone but some >> poor staffers have), but as I hear reports about how it is crammed >> with tax cuts, I can't help but wonder about the logic of a three- >> quarters of a billion dollar _spending_ bill that if full of >> provisions that will make it harder to actually _pay_ for it. > > This is how Washington works, politicians like to appear as if they > are doing something NOW, so they spend other people's money on > the scheme du jour, and if there are consequences 5 or 10 years > down the road, it doesn't matter since either they are not in office > any > more or the voters have forgotten about it by then.
On this, we are in complete agreement, but I recall a harrowing story learned through my friend Nick of a fire captain who thought he should Do Something Now, with deadly consequences. Whether the $700B ends up a loss, a profit or neutral direct fiscal outcome, it will cost us, big time, because of all the crap that it took to get it passed. All the tax-cutting garbage in this bill has nothing to do with what is best for the economy, nor even what is best for the citizens of the country, but the cold calculus of garnering votes and getting re-elected. Dave So it goes, and so on, Maru _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
