Doing his best to dumb down our discourse, Charlie Sykes kicked off his show on Thursday by talking to Milwaukee County anti-executive Scott Walker. Scott offered the standard boiler plate about how the Republican Party's recent electoral problems aren't the fault of the message so much as the messengers (The Brawler dearly hopes Republicans take this message to heart).
Walker, like Sykes, also is skeptical of the efficacy of a stimulus package. (Please remember, Charlie Sykes will spend all of next year saying words to the effect of "We've had all this stimulus, but it's not working.") Walker's recipe? Here's a shocker: Lower taxes and put money back in the hands of consumers!
Now to Nouriel Roubini. While he lacks Scott Walkers "essence of a Marquette education," he is an economist -- and one who actually saw this recession coming years ago. Roubini:
Tax rebates of over $100 billion failed to stimulate real consumption earlier in 2008. Only 25% of the tax rebate was spent as US consumers are worried about jobs and need to use funds to pay their credit card and mortgage. The tax rebate was supposed to boost consumption all the way through September 2008: in reality real retail sales and real personal spending rose only in April and May while starting in June and all the way in July, August, September, October and now into the holiday season real retail spending and real personal spending are down month after month. Thus, another general tax rebate would be as ineffective as the first one in boosting consumption.
The Brawler dearly hopes that Jesus tells Scott Walker not to run for governor. The possibility that Walker would have the opportunity to run this state into a ditch is too depressing to contemplate.
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