Moody's Analytics Becomes Low Down "Democrat" Tool - Gives Republicans Serious Agita

Great video at the end of today's blog. Check it out.

Arguing with the Republicans is like arguing with the neighborhood drunk who sits at the end of the bar at the corner tavern. You say Williams, he says DiMaggio. You say Magic, he says Larry Bird. You says FDR, he says - Herbert Hoover?

And now, in spite of the fact that both the sober-as-a-judge Moody's Analytics and the bipartisan CBO pretty much agree on how best to stimulate the economy, the Republicans are crying, "It ain't necessarily so..."

What are they disputing? These little tidbits will illustrate, courtesy of Bob Cesca's marvelous website:

1. For every dollar of money spent on extending the Bush tax cuts, there's only a 32-cent return on investment in terms of pass along economic stimulus in the United States.

2. For every dollar spent on unemployment benefits, there's a $1.61 return in economic stimulus. You save people from untold suffering and blows to dignity AND stimulate the economy.

3. Cutting the corporate tax rate - also a 32-cent return in economic stimulus on the dollar here at home.

4. Infrastructure spending? $1.57 return on the buck. And you get bridges, tunnels and broadband in the bargain.

5. Capital gains tax cuts? 37-cents on the dollar.

6. Even a temporary increase in food stamps? $1.74 in return. No such thing as a free lunch? Well, pretty darn close. 

So, what are the right wing's big beefs? (or is it beeves...)

Republican objection:  we can't really be sure what infrastructure even is. (See italics below.)
Answer: if it's got a brick, a fiber optic, concrete, steel, etc., it's infrastructure. Imagine being a teacher and having these right wingers in your high school social studies class. 

Republican objection: there is too much corruption in food stamp programs.
Answer: as opposed to... what Wall Street? The health care industry? Defense contracting? Big Oil?

Republican objection: not keeping capital gains taxes at current historically low levels will be a "jobs killer."
Answer: kinda sorta... it will be a jobs killer in India, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, etc. American corporations have created 8 times as many jobs in other countries in the last 20 years as they have in the United States. Keep that excess cash here at home and at least we'll have something to show for it rather than more lost jobs. (For instance, we can build infrastructure.)

(For the drunks at the Republican Club Bar avidly poring over this blog, click here for an article on the 8 public mega-projects going on right now in New York City. Then there's the rebuilding on the World Trade Center site, and about 160,000 new housing units in the works. Also, although it's hard to keep track, there are approximately 8 new 45-plus-story office towers that have just been completed in Manhattan. Oh, and two huge replacement bridges are being put up over two of our tidal estuaries. Now... right wingers, you have an elementary idea of what infrastructure is.) 

On to the video. Who better than the Moody Blues?