'Bulls & Bears' Guest Can't Find Example of Stimulus Success
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, people might want to be wary of the economic stimulus package.
Four analysts were arguing on Fox News Channel’s “Bulls & Bears” that stimulus spending has never fixed a recession. But when one proponent of the hotly debated stimulus bill was pressured to refute this claim, she was unable to find an example.
Leslie Marshall, a talk radio host and stimulus bill supporter, was asked to give any example of past stimulus spending that has worked. “Bulls & Bears” host Brenda Buttner asked
Finally
Another show guest, Tobin Smith, ChangeWave research editor and author of “Billion Dollar Green: Profit from the Eco Revolution exclaimed, “there is no example!” Eric Bolling of the Fox Business Network also reacted saying, “There is no example – that’s the whole point!”
Before that exchange, Buttner had asked analysts whether “doing nothing” would be better than passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Gary B. Smith, Exemplar Capital managing partner, agreed with
“You know Obama will get us out of the recession with, with what he’s doing. I agree with that. AND right into a Depression. That’s what happened with FDR! Look, this whole Keynesian stuff as I’ve said time and time again. Give me the one example where this has worked and I will say, ‘O.K. maybe it has a shot this time,’” Gary B. Smith said.
Later on in the segment,
Throughout the show, various guests explained their opposition to the stimulus bill. Tobin Smith folded his hands and prayed “Please Lord lay me down to sleep and have them do nothing! Do nothing!” rather than pass the stimulus bill. He explained that the government has already “done a trillion dollars of deficit spending,” and spent it on “nanny programs” and normal infrastructure spending. Tobin Smith also criticized the current legislation saying, “This is a health care bill – this has nothing to do with stimulus.”
Bolling referred to the bill as a “porkulus package” and cited $4 billion for community organizers like ACORN and $335 million for STD education as examples of government waste in the stimulus bill. “No way, no how this is gonna help the economy,” he concluded.
