Sunday opinion manufacturing, Civitas style

Submitted by James on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 9:06am

Oh to be a foot-soldier in Art Pope's Empire, to be able to declare that stimulus spending does "more harm than good" without a shred of evidence. Oh to be featured in the mindless media as an "expert" by virtue of being a simple cog in the Glittery Republican Opinion Manufacturing Machine. Of course, there's always reality to contend with:

"They were laying people off left and right before the stimulus came," Foster said. "It has at least temporarily stopped that. But really the question is what's coming afterward. If the economy doesn't pick up, what will replace that level of investment?"

Don't worry, Mr. Foster. Free market fundamentalism is the ticket you need. If you can just hang on for, I don't know, maybe ten or twenty years? By then Adam Smith's magically invisible hand will have concentrated more wealth in the hands of Republican business executives and you'll be able to hire zillions of immigrant laborers to build your roads for next to nothing.

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"Some economists"

Submitted by James on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 9:15am.

Everybody's an expert.

This report this morning on Kos

Submitted by loftT on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 9:44am.

shows the orderly progression of stimulus funds being used in an accountable fashion.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/18/794553/-A-quick-stimulus-report...

Progressives are the true conservatives.

GOP leaders spew double speak, N&O ignores cognitive dissonance

Submitted by usernamehere on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 10:59am.

Anyone else love these quotes from the article?

"I would say the reality is the stimulus program has done nothing to create jobs," said Sen. Phil Berger of Eden, the Senate Republican leader. "We need a commitment to lower taxes and reduce mandates on businesses if we want to create jobs. That's the way we got the economy started in the 1980s."

Rep. Paul Stam of Apex, the House Republican leader, said any jobs gained now will effectively be lost when the federal government repays the money it borrowed for the stimulus program.

So which is it NCGOP?

Did the stimulus do nothing - as Senate GOP idiot-in-chief Phil Berger asserts with facts to the contrary staring him in the face?

Or did the stimulus really create jobs, as House GOP conservanut Paul Stam admits, but dismisses because "they will effectively be lost" at some point?

NCGOP: Flailing about with no coherent answers.

McClatchy-NC: Printing GOP nonsense without calling them out on their plain doublespeak.

Stimulus: Doing exactly what it said it would do.

 

Two-fer

Submitted by James on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 11:54am.

Yep.

Bruce has been at this a long time and does a good job more often than most. That said, the GOP "two-fer" of Berger and Scam was a bit much by any measures.

Maybe he should have talked to government-hating Fred Smith to find out how much stimulus money has trickled down to his contractor businesses. I haven't been able to find out exactly which contractors have gotten which jobs. Still looking.

$410,000

Submitted by James on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 12:10pm.

Here's one piece of data on Smith (CC Magnum) and highway spending. They sure do make it hard to find who's actually getting the stimulus money.