The Path To Opportunity?

I've sent a few emails to my Senator (Klobuchar - D,MN) regarding Porkulus. The other day I received a response and responded in kind. Her response is below mine. Notice the Appeal to Pity common to almost all left wing arguments.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have compassion on people but I can come up with equally compelling vignettes decrying their policies. The question is, "What really is the best policy?" I really don't believe government is competent to manage the economy. I should do a post on why this is.

Senator,

1. The bridge didn't fall because there wasn't enough money. We spend enough money on roads every year to plate them all in gold. There was a design flaw with the bridge and to imply otherwise is dishonest.


2. In the last 8 years, we spent more money than ever on our schools. Money is not the answer.


3. The problem with government investing is it has to take the money from the market to put back in the market. This either comes from taxes which deprive people of capital directly; from borrowing in which the government competes with the capital markets again depriving business of the capital necessary to create jobs; or from inflation which diminishes the value of cash and deprives the market of capital. None of this can possibly "stimulate" the economy. The only real stimulus government can give is to spend less money and take less out of the economy.


4. Since you mention the Great Depression I'll quote Henry Morgenthau who was FDR's Treasury Secretary on their stimulus packages. "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before, and it does not work... I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started -- and an enormous debt to boot."


5. Investing in "Renewable Energy" by the government is a waste of money. If there is a cheaper form of energy out there, the market is incented to find it. If government has to subsidize it, by definition it is less efficient.


6. I wish you would do "do what's needed to get our economy back on track and restore our footing on the path to opportunity" but you have a poor start so far. If you would head down a path toward free markets and not the Keynesian slope we're on towards complete government control of the economy, we could be out of this and growing again in 6 months to a year. As it is Congress and the President are going to lengthen and deepen this into the Great Depression of the 21st Century.

Servius

Dear Servius,

For years our country has been adrift, with bridges falling, schools decaying, and science lagging.

We all know now is the time to invest. As the President noted the other evening when he addressed the nation, in January alone our country lost 598,000 jobs--that's the equivalent of all the jobs in the state of Maine. And these are not just statistics. These are real people, living in the state of Minnesota-- the couple who writes and tells me that every night after they put their daughters to bed, they sit at the kitchen table with their heads in their hands wondering how they are going to make ends meet, the woman who inherited a small amount of money she was going to use for her daughter's wedding but is now using it for her retirement because she lost so much of her savings.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will give our economy the jolt it needs in the near term while also building the foundation for longer-term prosperity.

This legislation provides economic assistance aimed directly at Main Street. It provides economic relief to working families, small businesses and seniors, including a tax cut for more than 2 million working families in Minnesota. It also gives critical support to states and communities so they can ensure a safety net for families hurt by the economic downturn. And it is estimated to save or create 3.5 million jobs, including an estimated 66,000 jobs in Minnesota.

At the core of this legislation is jobs. Just as we built back our economy after the Great Depression with WPA projects that are still with us today, this plan will put Americans back to work by rebuilding our roads, bridges and schools, by investing in homegrown renewable energy, and by expanding our high-speed Internet infrastructure.

I'm proud to have championed infrastructure, Internet and police funding in the bill. I led the charge in the Senate to make sure Minnesota and other states which had seen recent increases in unemployment got their fair share of Medicaid funding. I also pushed for more investment in our schools.

No one considers this a perfect bill. I don't agree with everything that's in it and everything that came out, but I knew we had to act.

Over the coming months, I will continue to do what's needed to get our economy back on track and restore our footing on the path to opportunity.

It is good to be back in Minnesota this week. I hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Amy Klobuchar