Seems about accurate |
What a difference 2 weeks makes.On March 2nd the Dow Jones (DJIA) was at 26,703. Right now it's at 19,856 as I write. On March 1st Bernie Sanders was a 53.2% favorite in the RCP Betting Odds tracking to win the Democratic nomination for president while Joe Biden was at 33% and Bloomberg was at 15%. Now Biden is over 90%, Hillary Clinton is in 2nd place at 6%, and Sanders is barely above Bloomberg's 0% at 3.7%. Only 2 weeks ago the United States wasn't on lock down and it was not panicked, not closed for business and the government had a lot less debt than it will have after today's more than $1 trillion stimulus bill passes.
I get the situation, Republicans don't want to be seen as doing nothing and unresponsive. So too it is true for president Trump. Democrats have seized the opportunity to stuff irrelevant things into the bill. And it's going to pass.
Money for nothing and your handouts for free. As a fiscal conservative, I hated the bailout in 2008/2009 and I'm not a fan of this one either. I get that there is a need to do something because a national lock down will have negative financial impacts. It already has. But have we learned nothing from 2008? We did not have a plan for this? No contingencies? I am not bashing president Trump here, he's had plenty of B.S. on his plate to deal with thanks to the Democrats over the past 3+ years.
No, I'm talking about the bureaucracy that employs hundreds of thousands of people and yet had no plan, by department for various types of national emergencies. Ridiculous does not cover it. Throwing money at the problem is a mere political expediency, not a solution. Where is the NTSB plan? Homeland Security plan? DoD plan? Department of Commerce plan? You get the idea. These departments have not shown anything productive to address the situation. Even the CDC seems to have been mostly reactionary.
Twice in just over a decade the United States has been caught flat footed and unprepared. It does not auger well for war planning or a terror attack. Prevention is only half the battle, preparedness and contingency planning are important too. Let's hope there is some learning this time and the next disaster is handled far better than this one and the last one.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Disagreement is always welcome. Please remain civil. Vulgar or disrespectful comments towards anyone will be removed.