by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n I\u00a0do not understand at all this going into debt for almost another trillion dollars, and then immediately promising to balance the budget soon (like blowing off your foot near an emergency room), or how \u201cstimulate\u201d differs from \u201cborrow,\u201d or why the more noble victim is the one who sought to borrow too much for too much house and then defaulted, rather than he who chose to borrow less for less house and paid his mortgage on time each month and now subsidizes the less responsible. (The former apparently will still have the larger house, the latter the smaller.)<\/p>\n Some other perverse thoughts:<\/p>\n 1) If one were, say, to have $400,000 in cash in a passbook account at either Citibank or Bank of America (both about broke), and also separately owed them $150,000 on a home mortgage; and if they went under, or had to recapitalize and then informed one that only the first $250,000 of the passbook was covered under FDIC (you laugh? But why have such deposit insurance limits, if all money in all savings accounts were really to be covered?), and thus admitted that they had lost one\u2019s balance of $150,000 that exceeded federal insurance, could one then just say, \u201cNo problem, you canceled what you owed me, so likewise I just cancelled what I owe you on the house and we will call it even?\u201d<\/p>\n 2) If we put salary caps on CEOs whose companies beg for federal hand-outs (I have no objection to this), why not do the same for those who want mortgage bail-outs? If the government rescues their loans (through reduced principle or interest or both), then why can it not say that if the house is ever sold at a profit over the renegotiated and readjusted debt, the government is entitled to at least half the ensuing profits?<\/p>\n 3) Can we ask politicians to give back monies received from now failed like entities like Countrywide? It is said that those who cashed out with Bernie Madoff, may, if the closing out was done recently, have to return their cash. Why then would not a Chris Dodd or Barney Frank not have to do the same thing \u2014 since at the time they were given the contributions, their benefactors were obviously insolvent, and had hid that fact from their share-holders? (I don\u2019t know whether the now broke Tony Rezko would qualify under such a proposed statute, but he seemed to have little real capital when he blessed the Obamas, through a subsidized low price, with that strip of land adjoining their yard. His debtors, at any rate, would not have liked him to be so free with their money.)<\/p>\n 4). Politicians have become like the CEOs they caricature. The only difference is that their poorly-run corporations cannot go broke. How odd to see a spendthrift Bank of America or Citibank mogul chewed up by a profligate Senator who is responsible not for $100 billion in subprime toxic assets, but for $13 trillion in run up deficits. Strange it is to see Nancy Pelosi rail about private jets for corporations that indirectetly get U.S. subsidies when she flies on one through direct government subsidies. The truth is that now it is far better to be Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, or House whip making a paltry $200,000 or so than to be the head of Goldman-Sachs or GM. The jets are better, the traffic-interrupting motorcades are quicker, the perks, free food, gas, car, or limo are as good or superior, and the deference and status outdo those in the corporate world. A cabinet officer or Congressional leader gets all the slush of the CEOs without the risk or liability of going broke. There is no broke \u2014 ever. You come into office, spend, take the perks, and go out leaving a greater debt to your successor who likewise prints more money. And if you are a Ted Stevens, Charlie Rangel, Chris Dodd or John Murtha, instead of obscene stock options, your freebies aren\u2019t even taxed \u2014 or known.<\/p>\n 5) If we specify spending, cannot we line item debt? Imagine a formula \u2014 $1 trillion deficit = $333 billion more that Hillary begs from the Chinese to borrow; $333 billion in printing more money and inflating the economy; $333 billion we raise by appealing to the \u2018patriotism\u2019 of the \u201crich\u201d who are to pay more taxes. It would be quite honest to match every borrowed dollar with every new spending plan: \u201cHarry, you want that $6-8 billion rail line from Vegas to LA? Well then, fly to Tokyo and float a loan with Honda.\u201d Or \u201cNancy, really want to save those poor mice in the mud of San Francisco Bay? Fine \u2014 but first inform 200 or so elites in Piedmont, Atherton, and Pacific Heights that they have to fork over $150,000 each for the extra $30 million.\u201d<\/p>\n These are silly thoughts \u2014 but then this is a weird recession too.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u00a0do not understand at all this going into debt for almost another trillion dollars, and then immediately promising to balance the budget soon (like blowing off your foot near an emergency room), or how \u201cstimulate\u201d differs from \u201cborrow,\u201d or why the more noble victim is the one who sought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[724],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Lj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11144,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/donald-trump-tragic-hero\/","url_meta":{"origin":2933,"position":0},"title":"Donald Trump, Tragic Hero","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review His very flaws may be his strengths The very idea that Donald Trump could, even in a perverse way, be heroic may appall half the country. Nonetheless, one way of understanding both Trump\u2019s personal excesses and his accomplishments is that his not being traditionally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12907,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/was-covid-19-our-neutron-bomb\/","url_meta":{"origin":2933,"position":1},"title":"Was COVID-19 Our Neutron Bomb?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness In the 1970s and 1980s, furor arose over our possible use of the \u201cneutron bomb\u201d that macabrely would \u201ckill people, but not destroy property.\u201d The logic of the perverse weapon was that on allied and friendly European ground, outnumbered defensive NATO troops might radiate\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":530,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/more-a-decline-of-the-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":2933,"position":2},"title":"More A Decline of the Spirit?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Ricochet.com There are lots of ways to lament America's current financial and cultural dilemmas. We borrow to satisfy our entitlement appetites; we do not fully develop our natural riches, especially gas and oil on federal lands, as if regulating is more important than producing them; we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6939,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/eating-our-young\/","url_meta":{"origin":2933,"position":3},"title":"Eating Our Young","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media\u00a0 It is popular now to talk of race, class, and gender oppression. But left out of this focus on supposed victim groups is the one truly targeted cohort \u2014 the young. Despite the Obama-era hype, we are not suffering new outbreaks of racism. Wendy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2548,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-islamic-absurdities-prove-islamic-violence\/","url_meta":{"origin":2933,"position":4},"title":"How Islamic Absurdities Prove Islamic Violence","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPageMagazine.com The other day I saw a\u00a0video of a sheikh\u00a0warning Muslims against disregarding Muhammad's\u00a0sunna, or the rules and customs the prophet prescribed for Muslims. To support his point, he read a\u00a0hadith\u00a0wherein Muhammad told Muslims: \"When you wake up from sleep to pray, wash your hands before you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2948,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-battered-american\/","url_meta":{"origin":2933,"position":5},"title":"Our Battered American","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u00a0am meeting a few battered Americans these days. There are not many left, but those that are seem to sound alike. 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