Despite the efforts of an increasingly desperate and, sorry to say, pathetic GOP, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act–though pillaged–has passed. As a more immediate panacea, it’s a good thing that this baby’s going down. Contrary to what the GOP wants you to believe, doing nothing would’ve been a disaster. Even though their mostly useless tax cuts are still lurking inside the stimulus, at least something’s happening. That said, they apparently still rejoice in their failed ‘No’ campaign, whatever bullshit they managed to jizz into the act, take credit for improvements passed in the stim that they opposed, and take the ‘stim’ money they apparently didn’t want (which, like everything they do, backs them into a corner where taking the money makes them douches and refusing the money makes them douches). It’s a shitstorm of principles that wouldn’t even be a concern if they maintained some degree of sanity.
I would’ve loved to post Rep. Eric Cantor’s latest celebration of GOP insanity, however, his inability to understand copyrights has robbed us of his latest opus. Fortunately for us, we have the opening act:
There is, however, an Obama supported clause in the stimulus that I’m quite concerned about. Somewhere in the murk and hope, there’s a clause that advocates ‘buying American.’ Under this clause, construction materials like iron and steel, for example, would need to be sourced entirely from American resources. President Obama, however, has provided a statement of reassurance:
“I think that if you look at history, one of the most important things during a worldwide recession of the sort that we’re seeing now is that each country does not resort to ‘beggar thy neighbour’ policies, protectionist policies, that can end up further contracting world trade…my expectation is, is that where you have strong US competitors who can sell products and services, that a lot of governors and mayors are going to want to try to find US equipment or services, but that we are going to abide by our World Trade Organization and Nafta obligations just as we always have.
Like the overall success of the act, there is a looming concern over whether or not things are actually going to play out the way we want them to. My problem with ‘Buy American’ is that it neglects the fact that most of the world is suffering from comparable, if not worse (relative of course), economic recessions. From a non-economists’s point-of-view, it still seems quite logical that; in such an interconnected world economy, protectionism of any kind cannot happen. Indeed, domestic spending is a necessity for survival; however, things can only get worse if there isn’t an element of international ‘hand holding’–for lack of a better term. Essentially, the United States of America, being the international bolster that it will always be (right?), is going to have to be one of the primary benefactors when it comes to international spending. There has to be a group of more ‘prosperous’ countries that lead the way to recovery. There has to be a cooperation between central banks towards dealing with failing banks internationally. Finally, we’re all going to have to keep giving each other hot shit to buy and build stuff with.
Anyways, our Presidente seems to know what he’s doing here. Like everything about a recession, there’s going to have to be some precise balancing acts going on here. Whether we fall our make it to the other side is in the hands of Mother Time (is Mother Time even a real thing? Or did I just make that up?).
With all that in mind, for some reason, Word From Our Sponsor by Boogie Down Productions (KRS-One, D-Nice, and Scott La Rock) keeps popping up for me. Looking at the lyrics, I think it might be this whole part:
From the days of prison I have uprisen
To my family members I’m marked down as missin
Listen, circumstances put me right in the street
With the will to survive, get paid, eat, and sleep
Some weep, or should I rather say some cry
Can’t get by so later on they die
Because the strong will survive
The weak will perish
Ignorance is a poison and knowledge will nourish
I love what I got and like what I had
I’m glad, not sad, and I don’t even get mad
I get even, myself and some others I believe in
Cos these others are my brothas and perfection we’re achievin
Word is bond. HAHAHAHA…sorry I always laugh whenever I say that. Outside of the fact that it sounds pretty funny to me, this might be why:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/18879/saturday-night-live-blizzard-man
Anyways, music time GO!
Download (I haven’t really been hooking it up for the MP3 collectors lately so, yeah, here): http://www.zshare.net/audio/558370052803f6f6/
//Vladimir Sorokoskev
