Time's Joe Klein - who is much smarter than you'll ever be - decides it's time for an elitist hissy fit:
Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787 stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted. On second thought, they may be right: it's been wasted on them. Indeed, the largest single item in the package--$288 billion--is tax relief for 95% of the American public. This money is that magical $60 to $80 per month you've been finding in your paycheck since last spring. Not a life changing amount, but helpful in paying the bills.
What you call "tax relief" is what I call "more deficit spending". When I'm not calling it "a gimmick" or "a bribe" or "a payoff". Remember how much you hated the Bush tax cuts, Joe? Yeah, me too.
The next highest amount was $275 billion in grants and loans to states. This is why your child's teacher wasn't laid off...and why the fire station has remained open, and why you're not paying even higher state and local taxes to close the local budget hole.
What you call "grants and loans to states" I call "delaying difficult and necessary budget adjustments at the state level". Lots of states have been living beyond their means. Giving them free federal money (further increasing the federal deficit) simply means the political class can put off doing what is right and necessary until the stimulus money runs out. Very helpful. Thanks.
It turns out that what people are really upset about is all that wasteful money that has gone to political public works projects...except that the overwhelming portion of that money hasn't been spent yet. Remember all those "shovel-ready" projects? Well, they didn't exist. The big jobs-creating projects like the rebuilt "smart" electric grid, major highways and fast trains will come on line during the next year. (Although these projects might have gotten greater public support if they'd been chosen by a National Infrastructure Bank--a panel of experts, like the fed--that would have picked them according to their value added, rather than by the bozo appropriators in the Congress.)
I guess that'd be a big deal if I was a builder of electric grids, major highways or fast trains. However - and this might just be important - for the assembler in the factory and the middle manager in the office who have lost their jobs, smart grids, major highways and fast trains don't mean squat.
So, two thoughts:
1. The Obama Administration has done a terrible job explaining the stimulus package to the American people...especially since there have been very few documented cases of waste so far.
2. This is yet further evidence that Americans are flagrantly ill-informed...and, for those watching Fox News, misinformed.
It is very difficult to have a democracy without citizens. It is impossible to be a citizen if you don't make an effort to understand the most basic activities of your government. It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you're a nation of dodos.
Yeah, it's all our fault. We're just too fuckin' stupid to read Time, listen to corporate jerkoffs like you, and grovel at the feet of The One. We're just too fuckin' stupid to understand that when we're tossed a tidbit, it's our place to be grateful.
Right.
You really are an asshole, Joe. And a fool.
"Remember all those "shovel-ready" projects? Well, they didn't exist."
As Mickey Kaus noted at the time, the fence between Mexico and the U.S. is shovel ready. It still is!
"The Obama Administration has done a terrible job"
If he had led with this and ended the column there, he might have had a winner.
Posted by: David | January 25, 2010 at 01:58 PM
Do tards like Joe Klein get paid to write this shit? Wonder where that 80 per month in your pay check came from? No Joe, I don't, it was reduced withholding of my own fucking money which I now have to add back in and pay taxes on. Thanks.
Posted by: kansas | January 25, 2010 at 02:25 PM
I don't know for sure but it doesn't seem that the stimulus package is such a good deal.
Somehow it doesn't seem like such a bargain. Go to this page
http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx
It is "is the U.S. government’s official website providing easy access to data related to Recovery Act spending ....".
As of 8:45pm Jan 22 they claim 640,329 jobs saved/created. Next go down to the Overview of Funding charts and add up the amount spent so far (92 billion tax benefits, 71 billion contracts, grants and loans and 100 billion in entitlements). My calculator says 263 billion dollars so far.
So I divided 263 billion by 640,329 and came up with a per job cost of $410,726.36.
Maybe they have something wrong. At least I hope so.
Posted by: DonnieDarko | January 25, 2010 at 02:26 PM
I own half of a small business, and part of my job is making out the paychecks. Somehow, I've been unable to find that "magical $60-$80" Mr. Klein refers to. Since you're a CPA, Dennis, maybe you could point me in the right direction. Also, since the stimulus money is "magical" I guess we don't ever have to worry about running out of it. That's a load off my tiny little mind.
BOOT!
Posted by: Joe Redfield | January 25, 2010 at 02:26 PM
Klein and his band of poster boys for anarcho/syndicalism or socialism or corporatist fascism are more touts and cheerleaders than actual thinkers. Their mantra beats the drum for government ownership & control, and they're going to borrow the stimulus money and push it into "shovel-ready" projects? The only shovel being used is the one carrying the BS that Klein and his buddies distribute by the truckload.
One man's "stimulus" is another man's "deficit" that is going to have to be paid off. Gypsy bandits like Klein and the rest of the parasitic elites on the ultra-left can have all the patronizing condescending hissy fits they want. The American people are walking away from them, their BS, and their BS POTUS Obama.
Posted by: daveinboca | January 25, 2010 at 03:28 PM
Along the same lines -
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/01/stop-demanding-that-you-get-screwed.html
A condescending smart arse. Should go far.
Posted by: Simon | January 25, 2010 at 03:48 PM
Joe-
Come to think of it, I'm not really sure what Klein is talking about when he mentions the "magical $60-$80" per paycheck. There's so much shit in that bill that I'm still trying to sort it all out. Actually, chances are Joe doesn't know what it is either... Probably repeating what some low-level White House flak told him.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | January 25, 2010 at 03:49 PM
Dennis, I'm pretty sure it was a rate reduction in FICA. Of course what Joe doesn't quite get, is that if you don't have a job you don't actually pay FICA tax.
I guess, people are just bitterly clinging to no paycheck.
Posted by: Allen | January 25, 2010 at 04:48 PM
No, FICA is still 7.65% for employees and 7.65% for employers.
I'll see if I can find out what Joe's babbling on about.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | January 25, 2010 at 05:02 PM
Magically, my IRS 2010 (Circular E[there's a joke in there somewhere but it hasn't come to me yet])Employer's Tax Guide appeared after my previous post, and I can't find any reduction in FICA rates(12.4 Social Security, 2.9 Medicare) so that's not where the magic is. Maybe I need a special IRS wand; maybe Joe Klein can help me find that.
BOOT!
Posted by: Joe Redfield | January 25, 2010 at 05:02 PM
The only thing I can think of is that he means the payroll tax credit. It's $400 per individual and $800 per couple for 2009 (and 2010). All other individual tax cuts are specific rather than general (home energy credits, expanded earned income tax credits, expanded child tax credit, etc., etc.). If the payroll tax credit is what he's talking about, I wonder where the fuck the $60-$80 per paycheck number comes from.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | January 25, 2010 at 05:10 PM
Yep, it's not FICA. The magic appears to be a slight reduction in witholding rates on income tax.
Posted by: Allen | January 25, 2010 at 05:19 PM
Kansas mentions the reduced witholding up above. Doh! Sometimes I wish I could actually read.
Posted by: Allen | January 25, 2010 at 05:34 PM
Sweet Jesus, if that is what he meant, his argument is even worse: Lower withholding rates don't have anything to do with lower tax rates. All it means is you have less withheld to pay your tax bill at the end of the year. You can accomplish the same thing by monkeying around with the number of personal allowances you claim on your W-4. And you still pay exactly the same amount of tax, so if you're underwithheld at the end of the year and go delinquent, thank Bambi and the Democrats.
And Joe can't figure out why everyone thinks the stimulus bill sucked... Go figure.
Posted by: Dennis The Peasant | January 25, 2010 at 05:56 PM
Yes, here's the IRS' own site on it
Yes, you do get to claim that extra take home pay as income.
They specifically say you could also change your W-4 but Obama is cutting you some slack on the paperwork.
Bwahahaha, the new "tax cut."
Posted by: Allen | January 25, 2010 at 06:16 PM