I’m becoming more and more convinced that a bailout package spending hundred of billions of dollars (arguably trillions in total) is just another way to forestall America investing in itself - much like the Iraq War. Why do we have the most expensive and least comprehensive health care coverage in the world? Well, because we’ve been told (in part) it’s too expensive to reform it - and it’s true that a lot of money that could go to health care reform and comprehensive coverage has instead gone to Iraq. Why is so much transportation infrastructure in desperate need of repair - and why do we have the least comprehensive and least efficient mass transit among major countries? Well, that too takes money. Alternative energy investment? Ditto. Cleaning up the environment? Ditto. The list goes on and on.
Of course part of the way we can pay for these things, many of which will more than pay for themselves in the long term, is to end the Iraq War. But even if you end the Iraq War - if you decide to spend $700 billion where are you? Back to hearing that we don’t have enough money….
I think Dean Baker is fundamentally right: when you have a real crisis you don’t need shifting explanations of what it is, you don’t need outright lying and making stuff up. We’ve been through this before with the buildup to the Iraq War - shame on us if we assist in the further bleeding of our country. We have better uses for the money, many of which will act as economic stimulus to get the economy back on track. We should do better than the bailout.
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