Monday, May 11, 2009

Where are the WMD's?

Over the past several years I've had my share of encounters with those who are upset major caches of WMDs weren't found in Iraq. To them, finding WMDs was the sole reason given by the Bush Administration for going to war with Saddam Hussein.

"After all, if they never found WMDs, why did we bother invading in the first place," they'd say.

They used it as a rallying cry in opposing the Bush Administration - calling it an unjust and unnecessary war.

They said the Bush Administration instead invaded to enhance their own personal interests, namely oil.

Obviously, the real reasons for invading were much more nuanced, but that isn't what this post is about.

The massive Stimulus Shit Sandwich passed last February is the new Iraqi War.

Wait. What?

Think about it.

What are the parallels?
  • The Dems sold us on the stimulus package being what was needed to solve the economic crisis.
  • The GOP(according to war dissenters) sold the Iraqi invasion as what was needed to get Saddam's WMDs.
  • The Dems said our leaders were just looking out for their personal interests by invading Iraq.
  • The GOP said Democrats were just trying to increase their own standing by using a massive spending bill to enhance their political base of power.
Without question, the Obama Administration sold Americans on the Stimulus being urgently what was needed in order to turn the economy around. After all, the Democrat-led Congress rushed through the legislation without giving the GOP, much less anyone else, a chance to properly vet the nearly $1 trillion in new spending.

How urgent were we to implement the Stimulus?

An article back from February wonders if jobs were lost because Obama waited to sign it.
Democratic lawmakers rushed to pass the economic stimulus bill last week after sounding alarms about the devastating toll inaction would take daily on the job market.

But once it passed, President Obama waited four days to sign it.

If the link between the $787 billion recovery package and the job market is as direct and immediate as Democratic leaders say it is, then could Obama's delay have cost the economy tens of thousands more jobs?

In early February, according to Rasmussen, 50% of independent voters supported the Stimulus bill. The primary reasons being belief that this bill would quickly turn around our economy and save jobs.

What about now?

Now we're learning the Stimulus Shit Sandwich is just that - a shit sandwich.

President Obama's chief economics forecaster said on Sunday that the country was not likely to see positive employment growth until 2010, even if the economy began to grow later this year.

Tying it back to the WMD analogy, Americans are learning we invaded(read: passed $1 trillion in new spending) for no good reason.

Want evidence? Check out this graphic.


Now the question is whether those 50% of Independents who initially supported the stimulus will recognize what the Democratic Congress and President Obama have done come the 2010 and 2012 elections. Will they be able to fathom a $1 trillion failure?

The challenge to Republican candidates in regards to the Stimulus Shit Sandwich is this - communicating that spending $1 trillion should have immediately turned around the economy, and it didn't.

Let's hope it works.

UPDATE: Thanks to the guys at Hotair.com for once again linking to 3BP. We appreciate the traffic.

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