[Stimpy]

Originally Posted by Azure

Actually, I have said from the start that I didn't agree with the GM bailout at all. I think they should have been left to go bankrupt.

And a loss of another 250,000 jobs that pay slightly more than a living wage.

No, I do not want the 'government' to create jobs. I want the private side to create jobs. I want the government to quit interfering.

How is the government interfering? That's a pretty good talking point but quite contrary to reality. The government has given big business money, insured loans, reduced interest rates, stalled regulatory legislation or ignored the responsibility to regulate what caused the problem in the first place. Where is this mythical government interference?

This is a bugaboo the American right has been very skilled at manufacturing over the years. Americans have been taught to fear their government, which is ridiculous. The government is of the people and for the people, or at least it was until the corporations were granted more rights than the individual. The government must abide by the framework of the constitution and the oversight and balance which the the three branches of government provide to each other.

Conversely, corporations and private enterprise have no such oversight or control through a common public means. There is no constitutional protections from these agencies. These companies can do what they want and then wage their battles in court. Exxon can destroy the Prince William Sound, and then 20 years later still be appealing the penalties imposed against them. Government does not have this latitude. But we should turn over all control of our economy to these entities whose only ethical concern is to turn a profit for the shareholder?

There you go again putting words in my mouth. I have MANY times stated that the DoD budget should be cut. But not at the expense of just pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the US decided to go in and blow the place up, they should at least try to clean it up.

The country can't afford to remain in these conflicts. It is well past time to cut bait and head home. You can't win a culture war with tanks and planes.

Uhh, no. The trillion dollars that was spent hasn't even 100% allocated to the various places it was designated to go. A huge portion of the stimulus was put towards 'green power', and it will take years upon years to see the results. In terms of where the money will go, and what it will do, I think the stimulus can work. But it will take a LONG time, and its money the US government/taxpayer does not have. Plus, because of how long it will take to create results, it won't help the economy is the immediate future.

Economic recovery is supposed to happen overnight? It took Bush eight years to destroy the economy and empty the treasury, but Obama should be able to fix that mess overnight? This has become a generational problem. It is going to take a generation or two to solve the problems created by two or three generations of Friedman and Reaganomics. Trickle down doesn't work. Ignoring or selling off the infrastructure of your nation doesn't work. Only investment in the infrastructure and the systems that support business will bring back the foreign investment needed to restart the economy.

The left-leaning Time Magazine ...

Left leaning? Compared to what? Glenn Back, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News? Time is as centerist as you can get in today's corporate owned and controlled infotainment media spectrum. Time actually used to be considered rightist because of their pro-business position on almost everything. There also is no left in the United States. The extreme left is considered liberalism, which is pretty centerist as an ideology goes. The left has been removed from the public consciousness. The communist and socialist ideologies now have no place in the discourse to balance off the extreme rhetoric from the right. The center line has shifted further and further to the right, making those in the center appear on the left, but the reality is that the whole discussion now comes from a rightist perspective. Left leaning, that's a good one.