This entry is dedicated to Jay Ambrose, whose naively ultraconservative points of view let us laugh despite these hard times, especially when he writes about the economy, national security or immigration. This entry adds nothing new to my previous entry but, in case the Examiner does not publish my letter, I wanted to share it with you.
Of course, in a short letter I cannot cover all the fruits of Ambrose's wisdom (Joking!) so, if you also want to comment Ambrose's economic vision (yeah! I am joking here too), you can write to letters@dcexaminer.com too.
Answer to the Jay Ambrose’s article "Democrats adopt John Thain model for economic action" published today in The Examiner (http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/JayAmbrose/Democrats-adopt-John-Thain-model-for-economic-
action38994887.html).
Dear Sirs:
To Jay:
We must thank you for writing about the economy in these depressing times because doing so you make us laugh. You encourage Republican Senators to be "resolute" against the stimulus package of the new Democratic President but consider an "irrelevancy" they having been "deficit-happy spenders themselves" for 8 years, after having depleted the Clinton’s fiscal surplus and reached historical deficits. The "borrowing-financed spending" was good when the historical deficits were Reagan’s and Bush’s but bad when Obama is trying to reverse the negative expectations linked to any recession. The answer to the problem originated by fiscally irresponsible tax cuts that pushed our economy over the hill of over-indebtedness is more "wonderful" tax cuts. Beside that, maybe you haven’t noticed but tax cuts help those who already have a positive net income, unless you want your tax cuts to be refundable credits, and the guys in need of help are the viable ones that under perform due to the crisis . Worse, during the uncertainty that accompanies recessions people who receive tax cuts tend to save those tax cuts.
Nevertheless, it gets better when you attack the stimulus for not been centered on an "immediate effect" and been "welfare-state hooey". About immediate effects, Moody’s, that Communist company, reported that for every dollar of the package spent in food stamps, $1.73 would returned to the economy and that such return would be $1.59 in the case of infrastructure, $1.03 if spent in tax cuts and $0.30 if spent in corporate tax cuts.
Furthermore, expense in infrastructure provides a long-term, predictable income flow, which is more appreciated by lenders in an economy plagued by uncertainty. It also improves our competitiveness and provides a more balanced distribution of the stimulus between final goods and capital goods, reducing the risk of stagflation. Finally, if there are about 1% of debatable projects, you don’t have to sink the whole package because you have a lot to choose from. The American Society of Civil Engineers, another Communist organization, has downgraded our infrastructure again and has proposed the need of spending $2.2 trillion in infrastructure during the next five years.
Next time write about God, gays and guns. You’ll look better.
Reading you,
Alfredo M. Bravo de Rueda E.
Gaithersburg, Maryland