by J.C. Phillips

The bully pulpit is perhaps a president’s most effective administrative tool and last week president Obama used it to good measure to shore up support for his economic stimulus plan.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was making a mess of things with earmarks for abortion clinics and public support for the plan was slipping in the polls. In order to bolster that support the president and Democratic leaders have made it clear that they are not going to go back to the failed policies of the past – policies that in the words of Obama “threw our economy into a tailspin.” 

Exactly which policies is he speaking of? Does he mean massive amounts of government spending that increased our national debt, the creation of new government bureaucracies, spending bills filled with congressional pork? That failed policy? 

And make no mistake: in spite of the president’s claims to the contrary, there are earmarks in this bill. Following the presidents press conference, a fact check conducted by the associated press revealed several items “tailored to benefit specific interests or to have thinly disguised links to local projects.” It remains unclear how telling bold faced lies to the public distinguishes one as changing the tone in Washington. But I digress.

For their part Republicans spent 8 years undermining any credibility they had in discussions of fiscal restraint. It is a point Obama and Democratic leaders have pointed out at every opportunity.

Under the leadership of former president, Bush non-defense government expenditures increased by 23%. There were big increases in everything from Social Security and unemployment to healthcare and education and beyond; welfare state spending increased by 32%; Medical care, (which includes Medicare, Medicaid, hospital and medical care for veterans, substance abuse and mental health services) rose 54%; nutritional assistance 43%; education 40% and student loans 129%. 

But Republicans didn’t spend all that money by themselves. All of this spending was undertaken with not only the now vaunted bi-partisan support but with democrats grumbling loudly that it was not nearly enough money being spent. It therefore seems a bit disingenuous to claim that the failed policies of Republicans are to blame for the current fiscal mess.

It also raises a question: if, as is claimed Republican spending sent the economy into a nosedive, how then is even more spending by a Democratic administration going to solve the problem? It is rather telling that in spite of the claim of economic consensus the governments own economists in the congressional budget office have said the stimulus package will have short term benefits, but bring us long term pain.

In a nutshell, the cause of the mess is the collapse of the housing bubble that was brought on by too much easy credit, which allowed for the expansion of debt for consumers not able to carry the load. These loans were snatched up by government sponsored enterprises who used them to fuel their growth, assured that the housing market was only going up. Efforts to increase oversight and transparency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were resisted by congressional Democrats who ignored warnings that the size of the GSE portfolio’s “posed a risk to the global financial market.” As the housing bubble burst the vulnerability of Fannie and Freddie was exposed and…well, the rest is history.

Apparently the correct response to the failed policies of the past is a bill crafted by the very people that caused the crisis in the first place. The correct response to the bad policies of too much government spending is to, well, increase government expenditures, increase the deficit, grow the national debt, expand government powers over health, energy and the financial markets, repeal welfare reform and increase welfare spending, expand Medicaid, redistribute tax dollars to people that do not pay taxes and oh yes– there is about $40 per month in tax savings for the average American. 

This change we can believe in is beginning to look awfully familiar.