Dems Offer Up Half-Baked Ideas to End Recession

Politicians from each camp are increasingly throwing around ideas of tax cuts and spending initiatives that will put the economy on the road to recovery.

However, some of the proposals are more dubious than others.

Take President Obama's proposal (please!) for the federal government to provide $50 billion to the states to avoid layoff's of state workers.

"President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery."

His proposal ignores the fact that the only reason the recovery is "still-fragile" is because the federal government continues to manipulate the market through bailouts and guarantees. In addition, the $50 billion he requests is patently ridiculous, as there is no reason that the already overpaid (compared to similarly-skilled private workers) state workers can't accept pay cuts or furloughs as a measure to avoid layoffs.

Or how about Congressman James Clyburn's (D-SC) recent call for the Republicans to stop demanding "tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts".

"House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) charged Sunday that Republicans need to stop talking about cutting taxes and "look to the future with a little more compassion and bipartisanship."

Clyburn and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) were asked on CNN's "State of the Union" about the three-page letter President Barack Obama sent to congressional leaders Saturday, saying that the extension of tax cuts and spending programs was critically needed to keep the economy from sliding "backwards."

Pence said that the administration was "groping for some economic policy" and called for "immediate, across-the-board tax relief."

Clearly Clyburn's call for "compassion" and "bipartisanship" is political-speak for "continued overspending on irrelevant and unnecessary federal programs" and "robbing from future generations in order to make political pay-off's today". His call to further the failed policies of the past prove that anything he says regarding the economy (or anything else for that matter) can be safely ignored.

On the other hand, although Republicans have shown a remarkable lack of backbone in allowing unchecked federal spending over the past 40 years, Pence's suggestion that tax cuts be the springboard for economic recovery is partly on target. If he coupled that with a call for a 30% cut in federal spending (that could easily be accomplished on a number of programs), then we'd really be on the verge of a significant, long-lasting economic recovery.