Don’t miss this one:
WASHINGTON — FDR’s analogies, like his policies, are being
recycled. As money gushes from Washington like water from a fire hose,
consider how bailout promiscuity is coloring politics at all levels.
Brian Tierney is CEO of Philadelphia Media Holdings, which publishes
Philadelphia’s Inquirer and Daily News and has missed loan payments
since June. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s spokesman says Tierney has
had “a number of conversations” with Rendell about receiving state
money that “could come from a number of revenue streams.”
“Never,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., when voting against the
stimulus, “have so few spent so much so quickly to do so little.” Three
of his contentions are correct. The $787 billion price tag is probably
at least two-thirds too low: Add the cost of borrowing to finance it,
and allow for the certainty that many “temporary” programs will become
permanent, and the price soars far above $2 trillion.
Cole’s fourth contention, however, is wrong. The stimulus,
which the Congressional Budget Office says will, over the next 10
years, reduce GDP by crowding out private investment, already is doing
a lot by fostering cynicism in the service of opportunism.
