STIMULUS: WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?
With five front page articles on November 14, 16, and 21, the News and Advance mobilizes to make the case that the stimulus is working. What were you voters thinking on November 2?
A paraphrasing and critique of the articles:
November 14-Getting money is good. Getting lots of money is even better. Even if it comes from the Federal Government. We Central Virginians were once known for our independent streak. Haven’t we now just declared ourselves “unfortunate”, and moved back in with Mom and Dad?
Getting money is good, even if it’s deficit spending. Even if it’s temporary. Especially if it saves government jobs. Layoffs in the public sector? Apparently not in Central Virginia. You private sector people, you'll get yours when we spend it. If we spend it. Now that we think about it, since it's temporary, we'd be idiots if we spent it.
November 16-Getting money is always good. A bus company in Rustburg sold some buses to lottery winners-I mean, stimulus recipients. Here we have definitive proof that "trickle down", long thought to be discredited Republican voodoo economics-does work after all, but only when monies extracted from the private sector are re-injected through government, never when allowed to remain there to begin with.
November 21-Three front-page articles.
Getting money is good.
I mentioned above that there hadn't been any government workers laid off, but I was wrong. To help bolster their case on the stimulus, the News and Advance reaches out to one they were aware of-Tom Perriello.
In an article touting the "Make Work Pay' portion of the stimulus, the paper asserts that workers perhaps didn't notice their increase in pay. Perriello's spokesman declares it "the largest middle-class tax cut in history". What does it say about the "largest middle-class tax cut in history" that, by the paper's own admission, no one seemed to notice? Are individuals who make $95k the new "rich"? What happened to $250k?
I am not arguing that teachers, police, social programs, tasers, road spikes, and beauty products (see front page, November 21) aren't necessary and good for Central Virginia. If I were offered stimulus money, I'd take it too; ok maybe not, I don't WANT to join a union.
By attributing the vote's result to an ill-informed electorate, liberals and the front-page editors at the News and Advance (but I repeat myself) underestimate the voters. Americans know that taxes are necessary, as is government. Voters instinctively knew that the question was not did the stimulus work or didn't it, the question was, how much government is too much, and I think on Nov 2nd the voters answered this question wisely.
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
With five front page articles on November 14, 16, and 21, the News and Advance mobilizes to make the case that the stimulus is working. What were you voters thinking on November 2?
A paraphrasing and critique of the articles:
November 14-Getting money is good. Getting lots of money is even better. Even if it comes from the Federal Government. We Central Virginians were once known for our independent streak. Haven’t we now just declared ourselves “unfortunate”, and moved back in with Mom and Dad?
Getting money is good, even if it’s deficit spending. Even if it’s temporary. Especially if it saves government jobs. Layoffs in the public sector? Apparently not in Central Virginia. You private sector people, you'll get yours when we spend it. If we spend it. Now that we think about it, since it's temporary, we'd be idiots if we spent it.
November 16-Getting money is always good. A bus company in Rustburg sold some buses to lottery winners-I mean, stimulus recipients. Here we have definitive proof that "trickle down", long thought to be discredited Republican voodoo economics-does work after all, but only when monies extracted from the private sector are re-injected through government, never when allowed to remain there to begin with.
November 21-Three front-page articles.
Getting money is good.
I mentioned above that there hadn't been any government workers laid off, but I was wrong. To help bolster their case on the stimulus, the News and Advance reaches out to one they were aware of-Tom Perriello.
In an article touting the "Make Work Pay' portion of the stimulus, the paper asserts that workers perhaps didn't notice their increase in pay. Perriello's spokesman declares it "the largest middle-class tax cut in history". What does it say about the "largest middle-class tax cut in history" that, by the paper's own admission, no one seemed to notice? Are individuals who make $95k the new "rich"? What happened to $250k?
I am not arguing that teachers, police, social programs, tasers, road spikes, and beauty products (see front page, November 21) aren't necessary and good for Central Virginia. If I were offered stimulus money, I'd take it too; ok maybe not, I don't WANT to join a union.
By attributing the vote's result to an ill-informed electorate, liberals and the front-page editors at the News and Advance (but I repeat myself) underestimate the voters. Americans know that taxes are necessary, as is government. Voters instinctively knew that the question was not did the stimulus work or didn't it, the question was, how much government is too much, and I think on Nov 2nd the voters answered this question wisely.
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA
posted by corndog at 12:05 PM
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