Why a Spending Bill Just Won't Cut It

As a Nation, Most of Us Seem Not to Understand the difference between consumption and capital investment: Those roads and bridges add substance, where tax credits and tax cuts are the true short-term wastes.

What Matters Most Right Now is not how much tax we are paying, but whether we are earning a paycheck at all.

We're Losing Our Jobs. We're afraid of losing our homes, or at least our home value.

And So We Don't Spend.


Tax Cuts for Broke Corporations or for the unemployed? Neither pays much in taxes, so the point is moot.

Bonuses for the Wealthy, that get parked in Treasury bills and Certificates of Deposit? Parked money is not getting lent by banks, nor invested by anyone else, so the stimulus effect is nil.

"Rescuing" Banks Whose Reserves, marked to market, are currently without value—and are getting worse? These banks have no choice, under "mark to market" rules, to do anything but shore up their reserves. Thus, no credit is released by these "bailouts."


Stimulating a Stagnant Economy Is One Thing.

Restoring Consumer Confidence is another. It's what will turn our economy around. Whether now or later.

Maybe in the Mean Time, We Can Learn about the difference between consuming and speculating, and between speculation and capital investment. So that we won't have to go through this again.

Right Now, Let's Invest in Our Future, with roads and bridges and other infrastructure. It's not the same thing as spending. It's capital improvement.

It's Time Americans—Including Democrats and Republicans in Congress—Learned the Difference.