By now you've probably seen or heard about this ad being run by conservatives saying that if you spent a million dollars a day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spent as much as the cost of the stimulus package.
Well, I guess that's true (if you ignore the chronological disequilibrium of talking about spending "dollars" two thousand years ago).
But a couple of responses come immediately to mind, one based on history and one that comes directly out of the life of Jesus himself. Below the fold.
My first response is that the $787 billion in the stim package is much less than the $2-3 trillion deficit in demand that it was designed to remedy -- which was caused largely by the "conservative" economic policies of the past few decades. So we could say that you could steal two million dollars a day from the American people every day since Jesus was born and you still wouldn't have caused the amount of suffering that the Republicans have caused.
The second response comes straight from the Bible:
13When Jesus heard this, he left that place and went by boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of it and followed him on foot from the neighboring towns. 14When he got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He had compassion for them and healed their sick.
15Now when evening came, the disciples went to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and it's already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
16But Jesus said to them, "They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat."
17They told him, "We don't have anything here except five loaves of bread and two fish."
18He said, "Bring them to me." 19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves in pieces and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20All of them ate and were filled. Then the disciples picked up what was left of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21Now those who had eaten were about 5,000 men, besides women and children.
Matthew 14:13-21.
I know bible study is not typical fare here on DKos, but it seems like a great analogy to our current situation.
The people were hungry. There didn't seem to be enough resources to feed them. The disciples wanted to send the people away to fend for themselves. But Jesus said, "Yes, we can take care of these people. Yes, there is enough to go around if we just dig into our resources and share what we've got." And lo, the multiplier effect was activated, and there was plenty for everybody, with lots of leftovers.
Looks like Jesus subscribed to the trickle-around theory of economics, and he used his bully pulpit to lead the people into the actions necessary to make it work.