Earlier this month, January 7, Robert Reich participated in a
Little man with big dumb ideas for an Obama era.
House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee meeting attended by high-ranking Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
His comments are worrisome (not all comments copied) throughout, but he manages to show either his stupidity, or Obama’s new way of doing things. See last line… (bold emphasis mine)
“Now certainly not in my lifetime or I expect in any of your lifetimes, have we seen an economic crisis of this sort, demanding this kind of rapid — and I want to emphasize rapid — government response….
…my estimate is very similar to Dr. Zandi’s. I believe that if government does not respond to the tune of — and I would actually recommend a stimulus slightly higher. My calculations are that we are losing aggregate demand, in terms of percentage of GDP, that amounts to about six and a half to seven percent of GDP. And therefore, the stimulus package needs to be in the order of $900 billion over two years…
…Now let me say something about infrastructure. It seems to me that infrastructure spending is a very important and good way of stimulating the economy. The challenge will be to do it quickly, to find projects that can be done that have a high social return that also can be done with the greatest speed possible…
…am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people who are already professions or to white male construction workers. I have nothing against white male construction workers. I’m just saying that there are a lot of other people who have needs as well. And therefore, in my remarks I have suggested to you, and I’m certainly happy to talk about it more, ways in which the money can be — criteria can be set so that they money does go to others: the long term unemployed, minorities, women, people who are not necessarily construction workers or high-skilled professionals.”[end]
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If any of you can make sense of his comments, then maybe it’s time for you to re-read some good Conservative literature. One of my favorites for a quick read is… “The March Of Freedom” Modern Classics in Conservative Thought.
And while you are at it, explain to me what the “F” is wrong with White Construction workers???
Gio-
Thanks for this, Gio. Keep up the good work.
So now it’s Affirmative Action (ahem, racial quotas) in the stimulus plan as well.
Gio, if you’ve ever seen Robert Reich, you’ll know the answer to your question.
I saw him last year, right here in Berkeley in the city’s “gourmet gulch”, outside the very-popular-among-the-PC-crowd Chez Panisse restaurant. There’s no pussy-footing around it: the guy’s a dwarf. Seriously, no joke.
Eowyn,
Oh, I know. Read the caption I put under his pic.
Gio-
Right! Got it
He really is a leetle man. I had known he was short when he was in Clinton’s cabinet, but seeing him in person was still a shock.
How naive and idiotic are these people?! Thinking anything will get accomplished quickly by the government (except money grabbing) is nuts. And $900 billion over the next two years? How much more debt do they want?
Sometimes I think the age to vote should be moved up, or in order to be eligible to vote, a test should be taken about how our system of government works. People have to pass a test at the DMV; how different would that be from allowing a citizen to vote? But that is naive of me to think that.
Michele, I’ve been thinking that for a while about the requirements to vote. The age of eighteen is not a magical age where everyone is at the same level of responsibility or knowledge. Unfortunately, a lot of college educated people show a distinct lack of common sense.
Was just listening to Mark Levin reading this piece and he picked up on the phrase “high social return,” which is the key to this whole load of b.s.
Jen,
Isn’t it disturbing how all of these uniformed voters don’t think about the consequences of their decisions and what it will do to future generations of this country? They are enslaving all of us to the federal government, but they don’t care. It makes me mad as h*ll! I hope in 2 years there will be a voting swing to the right. This country is going to need it.
I blame a lot of it on the mainstream media. They made O out to be the only HOPE for the country. They portrayed everything Bush did as evil long enough and often enough that everyone was just desperate for CHANGE! And the fact that the O campaign made everyone fearful that McCain would be W’s third term sure helped that along.
Yup, the MSM is to blame for the uninformed voters.
“And while you are at it, explain to me what the “F” is wrong with White Construction workers???”
They don’t speak Spanish.
-Dave