Even Sarah Palin Wants the Stimulus Package

Yes, even Sarah Palin, the gun-totin, socialist-hatin Governor of Alaska, wants the stimulus package to pass. Of course they all hate government intervention, when they're running for president, but then when the country is in crisis mode, everyones wants the money.

Palin, Charlie Crist, Arnold Terminator, and even most other Republican governors desperately need money from the national government. In total, the US state governments are going to be 400 billion dollars in debt this year. State government's, unlike national governments, actually have to pay down their debt every year. It really won't be easy for them to do that this year.

The government ended up doling out about 140 billion dollars to the states. The governors are very happy about that, it makes their job a lot easier. The problem is that it wasn't enough

The Governors are going to have hard time figuring out ways to pay the remaining 260 billion dollars in debt.

Probably what they'll do is raise about 130 billion dollars in state taxes and cut 130 billion dollars of government jobs. This is awful. Do we really want the government raising taxes and cutting jobs during the worst economis crisis since the Great Depression. This alone is proof that the stimulus is imperfect. Of course it would be politically inviable to bailout states, considering that we've bailed out everyone outside of MC Hammer from bankrupcy.

Ultimately though, this is why I don't like the US Senate. It moves too slow and always seems to follow the regressive ideas of the previous century; but I'll talk more more about that another day.

Stimulus Package

The Stimulus package is a necessary evil that we need at this point in our economy. Yes, it will expand the deficit to new frontiers; however, we are in the worst recession since the Great Depression. It will create over 3 million American jobs, and will dramatically improve the aging infrastructure in our country. It's easily worth the price.

We get mass transit which is extremely important to me because it allows less people to drive cars, thus helping both our energy situation and the environment at the same time. Low-income people desperately rely upon mass-transit, so it will help people who need the most help right now.

Probably the second most important aspect of the stimulus plan is the money going to the individual states. Unless you want massive state tax increases and huge state social spending cuts, then giving money to bankrupt states is an obvious solution.

There is of course the tax cuts part of the bill that will give every American approximately $500 dollars. This is good, but it doesn't fix the recession as much as created jobs does. As we've learned over the past eight years, tax cuts don't create jobs; but, I'm sure they will be a nice bonus. Republicans contend that the stimulus bill should be all tax cuts. Yeah, Bush tried that last year and it did not work at all. The other grand Republican idea is to do nothing. Herbert Hoover tried that once and it did not work.

President Obama

I have to admit, this is not my first blog. I had a blog about three years ago where I talked about the possible 2008 presidential candidates (tycratandsports.blogspot.com.) I knew that this was going to be an extremely exiting election well before people started announcing.

On the republican side, I viewed the front-runners to be Giuliani, McCain and George Allen (three years ago, before he lost his senate seat.) On the Democratic side I knew the front-runners were Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Even before Obama's book came out, I knew Obama was going to be good. Why? Because he gave one of the greatest speaches I ever heard at the 2004 democratic convention. I was completely mad after that speech that he wasn't the democratic candidate and John Kerry was.

Allow me to explain something about myself. I don't care if a candidate is charismatic or speaks well, but I know everyone does care. I will almost always vote for the democratic candidate that has the best chance to win the general election.

I knew well before the 2008 race that us democrats were going to need an excellent candidate to beat an almost liberal Giuliani and a moderate McCain (and yes back then McCain was moderate. I used to really like him even before he turned into Bush while running for the Republican nomination.) Hillary wasn't going to cut it. Hillary has no charisma. She is way too polarizing. You know how Obama blew McCain out of the water during the election. Well, Hillary could no way on earth blow out McCain in a race. She is not here husband. At least 60% of the country likes Bill, while about 45% of the country likes Hillary.

It's not that I disagreed with Hillary on any issues, it's just that she would of had a seriously hard time winning. If you agree with Obama or not on the issues, then you'll still like the guy. Yes, in America people are stupid enough to vote for candidates that that are likable. The last unlikable president we have had is Nixon but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't give uncharismatic candidates a chance.

I know I sound confusing right now so let me make this clear. I don't care about charisma, but I know everyone else does. So I vote for the democrat with the most charisma to beat the republican. I don't have any sort of romance with Obama. He just happens to be this years JFK, charisma wise. The only other reason I supported Obama over Hillary is that I believe that Hillary would of kept us in Iraq for just as long as John McCain would have, 50 years. So I don't believe that Hillary is the brightest bulb, unlike Obama, who I believe is one of the smartest people and best leaders of a generation.

Like I said though, smarts and leadership are only #2 and #3 in back of electability in how I value candidates. John Kerry and Al Gore were both very smart in my book, but they put the whole room to sleep when they talked. Thanks to them we've had Bush.

I know that I'm in the minority among Obama supporters, but avoiding another Bush is more important to me than gaining an Obama.

Why I Created This Blog

This is the first post for the Moving Leftward blog. Moving Leftward is, just as it sounds, a left leaning political website that offers analysis of current political news. I will hopefully be posting daily and will mostly either be discussing President Obama's administration or the republican counter to Obama. I titled the blog, Moving Leftward, because I believe that this is the first time since 1932 that the United States is actually moving leftward as a nation.

If you are wondering about me and my political philosophy, then allow me to explain. I am 18 and live in South Florida. I am a politics nerd in the sense that most elections and nearly every piece of legislation is completely fascinating to me.

Politically, I am a liberal. On the social issues, I'm actually a moderate. To be completely honest with you though, I could care less on most of the social issues. The reason that I'm writing this blog and the reason that I am so interested in politics is because I am a true economic liberal.

I believe that the government should help the people that have less. Yes, it might be class warfare, but as my Grandmother always says: "The rich have so much money. They don't need all that money." That may be an extremely blunt way of putting it, but I believe that that statement to be completely true.

"Greed is Good" is what Gordon Gecko, the wall street tycoon, said in the excellent movie Wall Street. During the 1980s, when Oliver stone made that movie, it was called the decade of greed. It was the age of Reagan. It was a time of mass profit for big business and minor profit for workers, unlike the 1950s or 60s which was a time of mass profit for workers and minor profit for business. Reagan and Bush (43) have created a brave new world in which greed has somehow become a sign of success.

People are struggling to pay for health care, our schools are COMPLETELY stagnating, we nearly have zero independent energy sources, social security is about to fall apart, we have zero money to pay our soldiers in two wars. America is truly about to become second rate in every sense of the word and people who make over 100,000 dollars a year are afraid to pay higher taxes??? Please, just shut up.