Media Help
One of the primary problems with our ongoing discussions about what to do about the economy is that the underlying logic of many positions is not examined or questioned. So to do the patriotic thing I would like to provide a question and answer scenario to help out media in their interviews with our Republican friends:
Media: Senator Foghorn Leghorn, you claim that tax cuts are the only way to fix our problem because only the private sector can create jobs. Let me ask you this: If people are overextended and our present bubble was based upon spending that was financed by borrowing, then aren’t people in such a financial hole that they cannot borrow anymore to spend, so how are tax cuts for businesses going to stimulate spending if buyers have no money to buy what they produce?
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: Well boy, you just don’t get it. Cutting taxes for business will make it more attractive for business to expand and hire people then they will have money to spend.
Media: But Senator Foghorn, oh, I am sorry, Senator Leghorn, if people don’t have money to spend and demand is decreasing why would a business hire people? In Japan people are saving for the bad times and private spending continues to shrink further hurting business. Why won’t that lesson apply here?
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: Well boy, you just don’t get it. First of all these are foreigners and you can’t trust anything you learn from them. Second, cutting taxes for the wealthy gives them money to invest in businesses that drives our economy.
Media: But Senator Leghorn, with shrinking demand why would businesses invest in new ventures when no one has money to buy the new products? Doesn’t this mean that only government has the resources to spend, create jobs, and put money into the economy so that businesses can start growing again?
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: Well boy you just don’t get it. Government’s don’t create jobs, they spend, especially on things I don’t approve of like unemployment benefits that just encourages joblessness, and we all know spending is evil and creates deficits.
Media: I am a little confused here Senator, doesn’t spending by the government put money into people’s hands so they can buy things, and by definition simulate buying and the economy?
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: Of course not boy. It just creates deficits and that is what got us into this problem.
Media: Ah, Senator? Government spending causes deficits and that is true, but didn’t the collapse of our economy come from the expansion of private debt through banks that were based upon housing prices driven by the private sector and have nothing to do with the Federal Government’s own deficit which was much smaller than the private debt? Doesn’t having a large federal deficit just mean we can’t be as effective in stimulating the economy as we would like?
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: Say the word deficit again boy and be afraid. It is right up there with spending and Democrat as evil things in this world. The deficit will be out of control! Spending! Spending! Democrats everywhere! My God boy, next thing you know they will be wanting to provide health care for everyone. What would that do to all my fund raising with the health insurers?
Media: Well Senator, what is your plan for the way forward?
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: We do nothing boy! That is the beauty of our ideology! We cut taxes so there is no sacrifice and we do nothing and wait for the magic hand of the market place. Anything else is government interference with the market place. This whole problem has been caused by government interference and of course Bill Clinton.
Media: But Senator, how does tax cuts build new highways or schools, invest in our power grid or alternate energy, make sure our kids can afford college, build an alternate transportation system, or upgrade our water supply, or waste treatment plants?
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: Flow down boy, flow down. Once businesses have no taxes they will be making so much money that our tax coffers will be full. It worked perfectly from Ronald Reagan on.
Media: But Senator, first after Ronald Reagan cut taxes, he raised them, and for that time it was the largest tax hike this country had ever seen, and second, he also ran up a huge deficit. Flow down has never worked, and when the economy was humming back in the early 2000s, Republicans were doubling that deficit.
Senator Foghorn Leghorn: Lies! Lies! Lies! The biased liberal media will never let the truth get out. I am terminating this interview and going over to Fox News where those people don’t asked such stupid and biased questions. In fact they know just what questions to ask, and if they don’t we give’em talking points which they dutifully follow. I hate undisciplined press people!
Sadly I have not heard any of these simple-minded questions posed to the Republican Noise machine as they continue to propose nothing but tax cuts and mindless do nothing.