Money, Money, Money! More Populism!
January 26, 2010 by Brian Jenkins
Filed under Be Risen, Featured
Who remembers the first Batman movie with Michael Keaton, where Jack Niclaus played the Joker? Do you remember when the Joker took to the streets and wanted the people to like him, so he threw all of that money into the streets? He kept yelling “hubba hubba hubba…money money money!” Well, that is what the politicians in Washington would call Populism, and it is now what you are seeing from your government, and you will likely see more.
The Brookings Institution has a new study that says that the largest and fastest growing population of poor people in the U.S. is in the suburbs. From 2000 to 2008, the number of poor people in the U.S. grew by 5.2 million, reaching nearly 40 million. That represented an increase of 15.4 percent in the poor population, which was more than twice the increase in the population as a whole during that period. New York Time’s Bob Herbert further concludes that “the study does not include data from 2009, when so many millions of families were just hammered by the recession. So the reality is worse than the Brookings figures would indicate.”
This type of information, along with the unemployment, and the rising prices, and the real estate issues that we all know about, has thrown politicians in frenzy. Our government is now run by populists. It started with President Obama’s recent attack on the banks, ending their unlimited proprietary trading, taxing them, and attempting to break up large banks so too big to fail no longer exists. These were necessary changes and long overdue. Wall Street and Financial Institutions have been playing with the people’s money, making large bets with the people’s money, and when they failed, the people had to pay. It was…uhh…unfair. No fancy sentence needed, it just sucked! These changes immediately caused a temper tantrum from Wall Street and a large four day drop in the DOW. That drop is now over, along with the temper tantrum, because Wall Street thinks they found a way to get around the rules. We will see where this goes, but I expect I will be writing about it in a few months.
The next move, and this is all happening very fast and not coincidentally after the Massachusetts election, is the middle class pitch. President Obama increases his Populist initiative with this five part plan:
1) Expansion of the child tax credit — doubling it among families with incomes up to $85,000;
2) Increasing funding for child care;
3) Broader support for families supporting elderly relatives, including counseling, training and temporary respite care;
4) Limiting student loan payments to no more than 10% of their income; and
5) Establishing an automatic employer-based individual retirement account plan, so that workers can establish an IRA through their workplace.
Hubba hubba hubba…money money money!! What a great thing it is to throw money at kids and old people. This is Politics at its best. But, how can you argue against babies and the elderly?
Now, for all the “deficit hawks” that think the government spends too much and that we are destroying America, the President has something for you too. A government spending freeze was just announced. President Obama plans to announce a three-year spending freeze on discretionary and non-military funds. The freeze is probably to stop the populist backlash to the soaring deficit and $787 billion stimulus bill. Spending for government agencies, from the Treasury to Health and Human Services, would not rise from their 2010 levels in 2011, 2012, and 2013, and after three years the total spent on those programs (about a sixth of the total budget) would be the lowest as percentage of the economy in 50 years. Exempt programs include Medicaid, Social Security, foreign aid, and all military and Pentagon spending.
In the middle of all of this, President Obama had increased spending on education by over a billion dollars. So, we have students, the elderly, the poor, the children, and the middle class. This is what we call Populism ladies and gentlemen, and I have to say that I actually agree with the moves on both financial and political level. It was time to regulate the banks, and focus on children’s education while helping families survive through this economic downturn. But, what I really want to see is a jobs plan. Now that type of populism will have me drinking the Kool-Aid.
- Brian Jenkins
Twitter: @Brian_Jenkins
I too am glad that he has taken a turn to populism. I just hope it’s not to little to late for Obama.
It has only been one year.
I posted a few of my thoughts on twitter over the #LetsBeHonest trending topic, but you prediction for a populist state of mind coming to America is scary. All these changes result in most restrictions, regulations, and taxes. Barack Obama was right to want to freeze spending for a while, we cannot continue to rob Peter to pay Paul. Additionally the sluggish economy is proving many things that everyday Americans have realized, the suburbs are becoming increasingly obsolete. I do agree with the suggestion on ‘automatic employer based individual retirement account plan’ though we should had done that in the first place when G.W. Bush proposed it
Populism is the opposite of what you describe. In fact, the President has cut taxes, and will cut more in the near future, he hasnt added regulation but has had the regulations already on the books enforced. Lets not have a knee jerk non factual reaction.
The Democrats created the middle class in America, and every policy that is being put forth is to sustain it. In the near future of your life time, to suggest that there will be no more suburbs is flat ridiculous.
Yep, I agree with the direction the President is going and like you want to see meaningful jobs created. Very informative blog as usual.