tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3098264341625381422.post1921613022436051236..comments2024-03-18T17:01:07.165-07:00Comments on The Provocateur: Barack Obama's Jobs Planmike volpehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02999118519606254362noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3098264341625381422.post-18447914858786862102008-02-25T13:31:00.000-08:002008-02-25T13:31:00.000-08:00Again, you are responding to points I never made. ...Again, you are responding to points I never made. The plan is woefully underfunded. You haven't responded to the obscenely lacking of funding this plan has. If it isn't going to provide enough stimulus to matter, what is the difference what else it may attempt to do? It won't do it on any scale that will make any difference. <BR/><BR/>He has a well intentioned jobs plan. I never said he didn't. I said it was misguided. I said he wasn't spending enough and he was off setting some of that spending with tax increases. Neither of those bodes well for the plan's success.<BR/><BR/>You can dress the plan up all you like however it requires that the government spend money to create jobs. This is 180 degrees from the way I see the world. I think that private industry not the government should lead in creating jobs. You can say that he is merely encouraging the right sort of investment, however he is encouraging it through government spending, which also means the size of government will expand. <BR/><BR/>I am against such a philosophy. That is a quasi socialist philosophy.mike volpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02999118519606254362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3098264341625381422.post-89873056232778945892008-02-25T13:22:00.000-08:002008-02-25T13:22:00.000-08:00Okay, the point I am making is that the Obama plan...Okay, the point I am making is that the Obama plan is an incentive plan NOT a government will do it for you plan. He will use the money spread out over 10 years to fund the development of industries that provide sustainable products versus consumable ones. The figure seems low because you appear to be predjucdice to think that if the plan comes from a Democant then it automatically means bigger government and higher taxes. The same thing for the construction funds. The intent is to encourage and support not replace private industry with government. In this regard he is very much a small government thinker.<BR/><BR/>And I don't know where you live but in many parts of the country people are still utilizing buildings that were built with WPA and doing quite well thank you.<BR/><BR/>I understood your post from the start. <BR/><BR/>You might enjoy visiting the discussions at jon taplin's blog since you really do strike me as a thinker.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3098264341625381422.post-18722046248538982022008-02-25T07:48:00.000-08:002008-02-25T07:48:00.000-08:00My apologies, I was under the weather all yesterda...My apologies, I was under the weather all yesterday.<BR/><BR/>I think that I need to work on some of my skills in communicating because you are answering points I never made and not answering ones I did.<BR/><BR/>For instance, my main problem with the plan is that 200 billion over ten years is a joke of a figure to spend on jobs. You didn't even answer that point whereas you spent nearly a paragraph pointing out that the money would go to good works like fixing our high ways. <BR/><BR/>If Obama wants to fix our highways, that is fine, however this is his JOBS plan not his plan to save our infrastructure. We have had highway bills in the past so I will need to see the fine print, something Obama won't have for a long time, on any public works project before knowing if it will be worthwhile.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Then, you make this point which of course is factually inaccurate,<BR/><BR/>" the US, a way to have jobs that last because they are not predicated on making war on some other country but on making our country the best it can be."<BR/><BR/>No, actually if you create public works project jobs they will only be good for the duration of the project. <BR/><BR/>The point I made, which you clearly missed, is that all of the boogeyman things that Obama, and others like him, demonize Bush and the Republicans only add up to a weak 200 billion ten year jobs plan. <BR/><BR/>Obama has no sense of proportion. We have a thirteen trillion dollar economy and he wants to spend 20 billion per year to create jobs. (Not mention that some of that spending will be offset by tax increases)<BR/><BR/><BR/>The jobs plan has no chance of accomplishing its main purpose: creating jobs. Whether or not its well intentioned or not is beside the point. It will fail in its main objective. This plan is totally unrealistic. It's unrealistic because all the things that Democrats try and pounce Republicans over the head with don't add up to that much spending.mike volpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02999118519606254362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3098264341625381422.post-74892114437857859022008-02-25T07:34:00.000-08:002008-02-25T07:34:00.000-08:00Mike, I owe you an apology. I just realized that ...Mike, I owe you an apology. I just realized that what happened to my comment is the same thing that happens when someone comments at my blog. I have to okay it. And if I'm busy elsewhere then it may take a few days. So sorry about the impatience, but then we all live in impatient times don't we. <BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, my Sunday LA Times Real Estate section reported something that fits in with our current discussion about bribes. In an article entitled, Mortgage relief for service members, Tom Kelly explained that under a little known statute called the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act of 1940 which was rewritten and strengthened by the Service-members Civil Relief Act of 2003 serving military personel can seek and obtain relief from any credit debt incurred while in the military. Sounds like real useful help to me but some folks might call the whole program a mighty big bribe. What's curious to me is that this program's existence has only become known now the sub-prime mess is here and it is becoming more and more evident that the military is running out of recruitment options.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3098264341625381422.post-86432480925100520832008-02-24T21:28:00.000-08:002008-02-24T21:28:00.000-08:00Gosh, for a provocateur you sure seem like a 'frai...Gosh, for a provocateur you sure seem like a 'fraidy cat. I posted a comment to your blog yesterday explaining the real ideas behind Obama's economic stimulus plan and I guess you didn't have the guts to deal with it or maybe you aren't smart enough but anyway you didn't enable it which I guess is all the real proof I need that you right wing nuts are all wind and no sail.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3098264341625381422.post-23573647088521641882008-02-23T19:11:00.000-08:002008-02-23T19:11:00.000-08:00Hi Mike,Here's a thought. Obama didn't choose the...Hi Mike,<BR/><BR/>Here's a thought. Obama didn't choose the $210 billion figure because he wants to give people money for doing nothing. His plan is to use the funds saved by ending an irrational war financed by borrowing us into servitude to foreign powers like China, and financed by lowering taxes for the very people who are making a mint off extending this travesty. His plan isn't to have the government do it. His plan is to fund industries that design and create sustainable goods not consumable ones. His plan is to use the contruction skills our insane real estate market has created to rebuild our highways and byways. Not some highways, some byways, not some earmarked boondoggle that buys more lobbiest homes. His plan is for the whole country's roads and bridges. His plan is to give us, the US, a way to have jobs that last because they are not predicated on making war on some other country but on making our country the best it can be.rhbeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16796598147204130444noreply@blogger.com