Monday
Sep292008
The party is over
Monday, September 29, 2008 at 10:36AM
Party is over – our elected officials need to be cut off.
I had the privilege of attending the first presidential race debate in Oxford, Miss., last week. I woke up the morning of the debate not knowing if it Sen. McCain was going to show up. He was threatening to back down, claiming the financial bailout deadlock in the Senate needed his attention.
McCain ultimately showed up, but as I was watching the debate in Oxford, I remembered a story one of my correspondents told me after the 2004 presidential debate between Bush and Kerry. The correspondent was on a rental car bus with one of Bush's senior economic advisers and asked him, not as a reporter, but as a concerned American, just what was the Bush economic plan for America.
My reporter asked, "We went from agrarian, to industrial to tech, but now even tech is threatened by overseas workers, so what is it that is going to guarantee the American standard of living moving forward?"
The smooth-talking, attractive economist said, "You see this is why we need President Bush, why it matters, because the president appoints the Fed chairman and we need a Fed who makes money cheap. Credit is the engine of our economy."
If credit is the engine, I think this engine has seized. I've written before about our standard of living being financed with credit, refinancing, interest-only loans and home equity lines of credit to pay down credit card debt.
This bailout package may get the motor of the engine called America turning at a few RPMs, but it's not going to be driving anywhere anytime soon. I've asked members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and many presidential surrogates and talking heads the same question, "What is going to grow our economy?" And to my surprise, not one of them has a specific answer.
This debate seemed more like two men arranging deck chairs on the Titanic than a debate of plans and ideas. Given the price tag of $700 billion for the financial sector, and a trillion in Iraq, coupled with the weight of social security debt, what investment will the government be able to make?
The credit party is over.
It's time to clean up the mess, get sober and get back to work. The Bush administration and the two candidates to date have offered nothing substantial to grow the economy – to get over that hangover. Their answers are more spending and more weapons. This is sort of like an alcoholic trying to cure a hangover with a Bloody Mary.
It's time to cut them off.
I had the privilege of attending the first presidential race debate in Oxford, Miss., last week. I woke up the morning of the debate not knowing if it Sen. McCain was going to show up. He was threatening to back down, claiming the financial bailout deadlock in the Senate needed his attention.
McCain ultimately showed up, but as I was watching the debate in Oxford, I remembered a story one of my correspondents told me after the 2004 presidential debate between Bush and Kerry. The correspondent was on a rental car bus with one of Bush's senior economic advisers and asked him, not as a reporter, but as a concerned American, just what was the Bush economic plan for America.
My reporter asked, "We went from agrarian, to industrial to tech, but now even tech is threatened by overseas workers, so what is it that is going to guarantee the American standard of living moving forward?"
The smooth-talking, attractive economist said, "You see this is why we need President Bush, why it matters, because the president appoints the Fed chairman and we need a Fed who makes money cheap. Credit is the engine of our economy."
If credit is the engine, I think this engine has seized. I've written before about our standard of living being financed with credit, refinancing, interest-only loans and home equity lines of credit to pay down credit card debt.
This bailout package may get the motor of the engine called America turning at a few RPMs, but it's not going to be driving anywhere anytime soon. I've asked members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and many presidential surrogates and talking heads the same question, "What is going to grow our economy?" And to my surprise, not one of them has a specific answer.
This debate seemed more like two men arranging deck chairs on the Titanic than a debate of plans and ideas. Given the price tag of $700 billion for the financial sector, and a trillion in Iraq, coupled with the weight of social security debt, what investment will the government be able to make?
The credit party is over.
It's time to clean up the mess, get sober and get back to work. The Bush administration and the two candidates to date have offered nothing substantial to grow the economy – to get over that hangover. Their answers are more spending and more weapons. This is sort of like an alcoholic trying to cure a hangover with a Bloody Mary.
It's time to cut them off.
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