Success and Prosperity
During the passage of the inanity that was the Democrats’ 2009 $878 billion “Stimulus,” Vice President Joe Biden bizarrely uttered in its indefensible defense “People look at me and say ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we need to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”
Well, we spent the nigh $1 trillion on the “Stimulus.” But we didn’t have that much coin just laying around – we had to borrow it. So we’ve also spent the last seven years-plus (and counting) paying interest on it. Which we don’t have, so we have to borrow that too.
And how’d the “Stimulus” work – as far as keeping us from going bankrupt? Not very well. President Barack Obama has doubled the national debt – from $10 trillion to $20 trillion. He’s added more debt than all of his forty-three presidential predecessors combined. Ok, technically, we’re not yet bankrupt. But we are certainly exponentially closer to it – sent hurtling there by this man and his plan.
Well, at least the “Stimulus” helped our economy come roaring back, right? Not so much. President Obama will be the first president in our nation’s history to never have a year of even 3% Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. President Obama is our most anemic economy president ever.
So to say the “Stimulus” – as a part of this president’s “Spend Our Way to Prosperity” administration – was an abysmal failure is a titanic understatement. Our nation teeters on the brink of oblivion – driven there by government spending in the name of saving it.
Yet another of the multitudinous problems with this government-money approach – is the rampant cronyism that inherently attends. Which is great for the cronies – not so great for everyone and everything else. To wit: 80% of the $80 billion in the “Stimulus” spent on “green energy” (which, again, is neither green nor energy) – went to President Obama’s campaign donors.
But we didn’t need the Obama Administration to teach us all of this. We already knew. We’ve had previous attempts – too numerous to count – at the government-money approach. Every single attempt has been a disaster. See: The Soviet Union. See also: Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea,…. Want another domestic example? The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administration. They elongated the Great Depression by more than a decade – by trying to throw scads of government money at the problem.
So we’ve all finally learned the lesson, right? No more ridiculously foolish attempts at having government spend us to prosperity, right?
Sadly, no. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo hasn’t learned a thing. Or, more realistically, he’s learned all the wrong things. That spending (and regulating) the Empire State into oblivion is fine – so long as he can push his ridiculous “green” agenda and give large chunks of government money to cronies. Great for him – not so much for the rest of us:
“‘The state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) earlier Monday passed a new set of standards that by 2030 is supposed to ensure that half of New York’s energy needs are met by renewable methods, ranging from solar and wind, as well as hydro and nuclear power.’
“As of 2015, New York only generated 11% of its energy via renewables. A tally it has taken them decades – and tens of billions of subsidy dollars – to attain. And now they have mandated a nearly 500% increase – in only fifteen years. Predicated, again, upon energy sources that require massive, ongoing government cash infusions – and in most instances take more energy to produce than they provide.
“The New York State mandate is a VERY expensive proposition – that will do great and lasting damage to its economy.”
How expensive? “The estimated $7.6 billion ratepayer-funded bailout….” And that’s a government estimate – so you know it is WAY low.
You want cronyism? We’ve got cronyism:
“(O)ne of the panel’s main proposals is to steal from the poor to give to the Democrats’ friends….(T)heir proposal…includes Zero Emission Credits (ZECs). The credit will be used to take money from energy consumers and send money to the owners of the nuclear power plants in upstate New York beginning in April of 2017. In the first two years alone the credit will take $965 million in one of the most regressive ways possible: increased energy fees.”
In fact – it’s about as nakedly crony as it can possibly be.
Governor Cuomo Uses Environmentalism to Excuse Crony Corruption: “Policies that are cynically good for the business of politics and bad for everyone else.”
Indeed they are. In fact, this awful plan is so awful – that New York City Democrat Mayor Bill DeBlasio is raising red flags. (Get it – “red” flags?)
Though this is DeBlasio – noted Communist about town. So he doesn’t mind the bailout – he just doesn’t think the cronies will do anything for it. A likely translation: “Hey, those crony campaign donations went to Cuomo – not me.” Something the cronies will now almost certainly rectify.
One thing we know with moral certitude – NONE of any of this huge government-money spending puts New York on the path to prosperity. Well, except for Cuomo’s crony government-money recipients.
What it will absolutely do is make every single New Yorker poorer – for having the audacity to want to keep the lights and heat on.
Governor Cuomo should know better. Though, again, he likely does – but he weights the personal cronyism advantages he gets as of much greater import than the egregious damage he’s doing to his state and its residents.
Which is exactly how the United States does government in the 21st Century.
This first appeared in Red State.