The Anti-Stimulus Crowd: The Fear of Success

[Cronopio]

http://www.truthout.org/010509A

... It took the enormous public spending associated with World War II to fully lift the economy out of the depression. The lesson that economists take away from this experience is that we should be prepared to run very large deficits in order to give the economy a sufficient boost to generate self-sustaining growth.

However, from the standpoint of Republicans, the more ominous lesson of the New Deal policies is that it left the Democrats firmly in power for more than 20 years. The Republicans did not regain the White House until 1952, 20 years after President Roosevelt was first elected.

Imagine how terrifying the prospect of 20 years of Democratic presidencies must be for the current generation of Republican leaders. This would mean that they would not retake the White House until 2028, just 20 years before the Social Security trust fund is first projected to face a shortfall.

In 2028, Newt Gingrich will be 85 years old; Mitt Romney will be 81; Mike Huckabee will be 73 and Senator McCain will be 98. Even Sarah Palin will be a less than youthful 64. In short, if President-elect Obama is allowed to carry through with his stimulus package and the rest of his ambitious domestic agenda, most of current leadership of the Republican Party can expect to spend the rest of their political career in the political wilderness, far removed from the centers of power. ...

[ixion]

1. Fear of devaluation is more like it

we borrowed trillions more of what we do not have. Econ 101. That's a bad thing.

[Wapsie B]

2. A standard belief of these people is that you cannot tax the country to prosperity.

Even though history paints quite a different story.

[nevergiveup]

3. A friend of my brother-in-law

told me yesterday he was praying this stimulus package of Obama's is a failure because if it isn't it will mean his life long political philosophy has been a fraud. The guy is in real estate and hasn't sold any property in three months......go figure.

[Idealism]

4. People are so vain and ignorant that it boggles my mind

how they ever earned enough money to even have property.

[Cronopio]

5. Your real estate guy is too invested in the problem to see the solution.

But to the point of him actually *wanting* to see the economy go down the tubes? That's an incredibly spiteful little attitude for him to take.

[nxylas]

6. That was their main reason for opposing universal healthcare too

The fear that it would be so popular that the people would never want a return to plutocracy again.

[Still Sensible]

7. Some Republicans are pissed because

It took them more than four decades to recover from the New Deal (in their minds) and if an economic stimulus works this time, their "government-and-regulation-is-inherently-evil" philosophy will be out in the cold for some extended period of time once again. Of course, these folks used to believe in fiscal responsibility, too, before it became inconvenient.

Primarily, this would be the laissez-faire crowd, from a philosophical standpoint. Other parts of the GOP family, i.e. the religious hardliners and the neocons, are just pissed about the folks they have allied with losing the power. The GOP had already cast out the libertarians for all intents and purposes.