Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday morning also indicates that 63 percent of the public thinks that projects in the plan were included for purely political reasons and will have no economic benefit, with 36 percent saying those projects will benefit the economy. – CNN Poll: 3 of 4 Americans say much of stimulus money wasted
Someone tell Joe Klein, who blames the American “dodos” for not understanding that the stimulus is good for us all, that he’s a little late. Mencken warned politicians about the people a long time ago.
“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
Besides, politics is perception and when you are struggling to pay the bills, or have lost your job, while the people in charge of the U.S. government are bailing out their friends and the fat cats who got us all into this mess, the first thing you do is turn on the people you are watching that gave you the shiv. See Massachusetts.
This latest political squeal from the White House is all about how the Senate simply must re-confirm Ben Bernanke.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m sick of people telling me that the economic sky will fall if we don’t –fill in the blank here–.
These are the same people who scared the crap out of everyone over the stimulus (which was too small), the bailouts (just fail, already), and now, Bernanke’s confirmation (one of the guys who got us into this mess). Ben Smith posts statements from McCain and MoveOn.org, both against Bernanke.
This is a policy disagreement, folks, while the White House sends out their people, including Tim Geithner, to CYA via fearmongering.
Whether it’s Plouffe or Geithner (or Gibbs taking on Ed Schultz), the White House seems to be in bunker mentality, which will get them exactly nowhere.
From an interview between Politico’s Allen and Geithner, who if he’s talking is supporting his Wall Street friends, even though they’ve yet to deliver any answers beyond their own class and club.
Mike ALLEN: And how worried are you about how the markets are going to react to this uncertainty about it–so many Democrats either coming against or not taking a stand?
Tim GEITHNER: Well, I think you’re absolutely right. I think the markets would view this as a very troubling thing for the economy as a whole, but, as I said, I don’t think there is a–I don’t think they should be uncertain. I think they can be confident, because we’re very confident he’ll be confirmed.
The voters in the last months have illustrated that they’re not enamored with the stimulus, the bailouts, the too big to fail cozying up to Wall Street policies of the White House. So, what does Bernanke represent? The policies over which the voters collectively gagged in Massachusetts.
To top it all comes news that Democrats believe they may actually be able to coerce the House into signing on to the Senate bill, you know, because it can all be fixed later.
Nothing surprises me anymore, because this is the same Democratic elite who actually believed a good strategy for 2010 was doubling down on blaming Bush, which I warned the moment it was floated was dumb. Politico writes about this today. James Carville makes the argument that blaming Bush would work, but…
Part of the problem is that Mr Obama was refreshingly naive in believing his own rhetoric.
Yeah, and he’s got a White House full of people who still do, too.
So, while blaming Bush was the perfect message last year, at the beginning, what Mr. Carville and others forget is that Barack Obama decided a long time ago that ideology would not be his guide, so making targets out of ideological adversaries was never in the cards, even George W. Bush.
Now it’s too late to blame Bush, because the voters have turned their ire on Obama. There’s no going back, though since the White House is sticking with Bernanke it’s clear they’re determined to continue to earn it.
Taylor, Your post is on the money. It confirms their market (WALL STREET) orientation to everything. As long as the market is doing fine, screw Main street.
He’s going to wait until some clever Republican picks up the chant — Bernanke-Geithner & Summers, like Winkin, Blinkin & Nod, and repeats it over and over and over. They three are the bane of our economy. Until THEY change everything else is window dressing. Imagine, McCain is voting against Bernanke.
Bernanke, Geithner & Summers.
Sen. Gregg stated today that Rep. support Bernanke. Regardless of McCain what Gregg said should tell you all you need to know.
On economics, the Obama White House is siding with Republicans.
Let’s see. The President is railing against “big banks” (calling for regulation of an industry he clearly doesn’t understand) and at the same time supports Bernanke.
All I can do is shake my head.
The Obama WH has been the Republicans biggest booster this year.
Geithner needs to be gone.
I think bernanke – in spite of his supporters – is actually a decent person.
LL, in response to your question downthread, the one economist who consistently got it right was Roubini. He called it, almost to the day, on the bubble. 99.9% of economists missed it. So I don’t hold the fact that Bernanke also missed it against him. The issue for me is how he reacted to the problem. And he has reacted quite well — THAT part of it is hardly in dispute. So much that Roubini has wholeheartedly endorsed Bernanke’s reappointment: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/opinion/26roubini.html
Oh, and watch the new consumer protection agency become progressives’ new “public option.” Heads up – that would be another mistake.
djjl says:
25 January 2010 at 6:08 pm
What does Bernanke being “a decent person” have to do with whether he should be re-confirmed? Answer: nothing.
The Obama administrations “palace guard” seem to think that blaming BUSH is the best tactic; but uh, Bernanke came from the BUSH administration!
Ellie Light is everywhere, a sign of the desperation of the Obots:
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/01/ellie_light_dozens_more_sighti.html
Teleprompters? At an Elementary School?
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100119/480/9131bc77c7534185bdbf267bb4ab8497/
Utterly pathetic.
Taylor,
I caught that after the post. I believe his is both a decent person and doing a decent job under the circumstances. He’s the only one in whom I feel any confidence and I don’t think it would behoove us for ALL to be gone. Geithner and Summers need to be gone.
Bernanke, appointed by Bush, had an ARM, he had to re-finance in 2009, when it exploded.
That sentence says it all, if you know anything about finance. No one who knows ANYTHING about finance gets an ARM; it’s too reckless, and it’s very bad economic planning, folks. Bernanke financed his Capitol HIll home with an ARM; worse, he had to re-finance in 2009 because the cost of his ARM exploded.
Now, anyone who reads the economics blogs–Roubini–knew in 2005 that the housing bubble was bursting. I knew it in summer 2005!!! But Bernanke? Oh, well, he was still drinking his own kool-aid. He didn’t have a clue; no wonder he lied to us, and said sub-prime was “contained,” and their was no housing bubble. No wonder he lied and said there was no “recession” on the horizon; no wonder he’s indulged in monetization of our debt for 2 freakin’ years now, so that we’re never going to dig ourselves out.
HE’S AN IDIOT!
Actually the public IS pretty stupid. 40% of the stimulus money went for tax cuts for the middle class. That would be the extra money in your paycheck each week. Fully 50% of the money has yet to be spent. Only about $180 billion has already been spent on shovel ready projects. So when the idiot public says that the money was wasted, what they are really saying is that it was wasted on them in the form of a tax cut. The public truely is an ass. Peace
ogenec~ I read the Time piece on Bernanke and he appears to be a decent,modest man who is an academic and not a money grubber. Taylor is right however,politics is perception and the public perceives them to be all of a piece; Bernanke,Geithner,Summers. I have a lot of respect for Roubini and Krugman who both endorse him and they know a hell of alot more than I do.But Obama is sealing his fate if he does not change his economic team people have made up their minds about that.
I don’t know how in the world you can argue against a consumer protection agency!!???
This argument should be about the need for the Federal Reserve Bank. It doesn’t matter one bit if it’s Bernanke or Isaac Newton (who did a pretty good job running England’s banking system) who’s in charge of the FED. It’s the Federal Reserve Bank itself that is the problem. The Congress set it up and the Congress can revoke its charter. Peace
djjl says:
25 January 2010 at 7:05 pm
Whether Bernanke is doing a good job or not, I perceive him as part of a larger BO problem — a character problem. I believe all of these people were chosen (kept) in part to pacify the Republicans, and the elites.
It was an attempt to signal to the powers that be that he was NOT going to upset the natural order of things if you will. Hence we have, Patreaus, Gates, Bernanke, Odierno rather than Obama’s own people. No real break from the past.
Bob Rubin’s crowd still seems to be in charge of our economy; while GWB’s General’s are still in charge of Defense & War. Maybe this is why he can’t close that damned base in Cuba.
Ramsgate, you are right on the money. Maybe Obama can challenge them all to a duel? That’s how they got rid of Hamilton. Peace
LL, I don’t care about perception; I care about reality. I see the argument for getting rid of Geithner. The case doesn’t exist for Bernanke, and it’s not gonna happen. As for the consumer protection agency, I do believe wholeheartedly in protecting consumers. I just don’t believe we need a separate agency to do it. The Fed, the SEC, the CFTC, Finra, OCC, FDIC etc etc — aren’t they all supposed to protect consumers? One more agency is not the solution. But watch progressives insist on it as the sine qua none of financial reform.
The problem is that none of the agencies you name are doing that.
Lake Lady says:
26 January 2010 at 9:55 am
The problem is that none of the agencies you name are doing that.
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Agreed. So let’s fix that problem. Let’s eliminate some (CFTC and SEC should be merged, for example), and reorganize others. And bring in new leadership — I like Sheila Bair and Elizabeth Warren, for example. But we don’t need yet another agency.