Ron Paul talks tough about stimulus plan

Well i have been saying the same thing for the past month but people accused me of being a liberal. In reference to worring about the national debt well what the people need now are jobs. With job people spend money, money equals tax dollars. Until we get income coming end how can you payoff the debt. You can`t So Ron while you are right about the last eight years. Worring about that right now is not going to fix the economy.

Ron Paul is calling it like he sees it. Both Bush's spent like there was no tomorrow, but Bush Jr. just seemed like he had to one up his Dad. This is the worst administration that any President has had to step into. This morning, on my local tv, someone from a radio station that speaks on the politics of the nation, was saying that there is too much of the pork bills that have been snuck in there. For ex. money for the prevention of STD's. The reporter asked if this wouldn't create jobs? The answer was a resounding no. All it did was pour money into a program that was already there with workers already in place. This radio personality said that that particular bill should be tacked onto a health bill, not a job making bill. The Republicans that backed Bush Jr. are just trying to cover their butts for all the mistakes that they made and their doing at the expense of the people and stalling for time that we do not have. The stalling comes in the form of the pork belly bills that the stimulus package is being stuffed with. We are at a time in the history of our Country that the politicians need to forget about what parties they have claimed, what ideaologies that they have stood behind and just roll up their sleeves and create a team. It may seemed old fashioned or even stupid to think that we can go back to good old fashioned team work, but what other option do we have left? I noticed, as I was reading through the posts here, that someone said that the money needed to be put in the hands of the people. That they would love to have the money to go out and maybe pay their bills. That does sound good, but I keep thinking of the old addage that if you give a man a fish, he eats for one day, but if you teach a man to fish, he eats forever. (forgive me for not remembering the exact phrasing on this) The stimulus package is to create jobs. This country is laying people off left and right and they are going to need to be retrained for the new jobs that will be created with that stimuus package. Ron Paul has it right and if he, being a Republican, is just as disgusted with his own party for not being better Republicans these past 8 years, then he may be the one to represent the Republicans. DCMerkle

I think that there is more people to blame, like those who wanted loans given to enemy powers and to those who were unable to pay back. I do think that the idea that if a school or a university or any building rents or allows part of its rooms out for bible studies, etc. even after hours, that it should not get part of the stimulus to upgrade the building to environmentally friendly standards is wrong. That is discrimination and a deliberate attempt to reduce all religious people, esp. Christians to poverty. I guess you forgot to mention that. I do think it should have gone to the ordinary people, rather then the big businesses, because it is the ordinary people down there who have to pay their bills. And where is the money coming from? You and now I hear that China is providing the money as well. So I guess now that they do, you will have to turn a blind eye to their human right violations.

Any stimulus should be given directly to working class Americans - giving it to all these other places means it will never reach most.

I think to a certain extent he is right. If the money for the stimulus package was all given directly to consumers, spending would certainly go up. Heck, if I got money I wasn't expecting, I'd go out and buy clothes and go out to eat more often, things I really don't do anymore because of finances. I would also use it to pay off debt (credit cards, college loans, and my car loan), which isn't a bad thing, because it's giving money back to the banks and to the business that I owe money to (the furniture store, for example). So if instead of doing this silly bail-out business and spending package, the peoples money were given back to them, it really would have probably a better effect than the bail-out and the stimulus package will. Government would benefit by sales tax and by more people keeping their jobs and paying taxes. I do think that they need a stimulus plan, not to prolong the inevitable, but to invest in sustainable energy and more extensive public transportation. Keeping public transportation costs down should be a major concern as well. I think that there is some money devoted to these things in the stimulus plan, but I really think that it's the only thing the stimulus plan should be geared toward. Infrastructure is also important, but that really is only going to give temporary jobs to construction workers. Another easy and cheap way to stimulate the economy is to stop being Nazis about giving people travel visas. Tourism is a great industry and we're really missing out on it in the post-9/11 America.

In an ideal world the movers and shakers of private enterprise would be ethical and community-minded, and most of them are, but we've set up an economy that doesn't adequately reward behavior that supports strong community involvement and ethics, so the dollar becomes the sole determinant of what constitutes success. That's a recipe for greed and corruption, in my way of thinking, or at the very least terrible long-term business strategies. The short-term is the only thing people can afford to think of or they'll fail in the short term and there will be no long-term, so long-term business planning is put on hold. I think business could use some help refocusing themselves, by investing in some of the things the plan calls for. I love the power of free enterprise but sometimes, and I think now is one of those times, business needs the government as a catalyst for changing the way they do business.. for their and for our long-term benefit.

I give him a lot of credit for telling it like it is as far as the past eight years is concerned. I agree, you can't blame one person or group of people or one party for the mess we're in. It's much too big a mess to have been caused by anything other than a real group effort! However, I disagree with him that the economy can be stimulated by market forces. If we were to wait for that to happen we'd be in a deeop depression for sure, in my opinion. However, wasteful spending isn't the answer and I admit some of what both houses of Congress put in their respective were wasteful and not at all stimulative to the economy. Even some of the provisions which may be fine don't belong in this particular bill. At the same time, just giving more tax cuts isn't enough either. I haven't had a chance to see just what is included in the compromise they came up with in the Senate but I hope they have or will come up with something that has a chance to work. Annie