Where's my handout? Part I

This entry is inspired by the following article: http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06112009.html. The website for CounterPunch is a reliable site for some good, well-thought criticism of government policy.

Unlike Mr. Lindorff, I don't think that Obama's health care plan is a bad idea. However, that is all it is right now: an idea. There's no real plan, aside from a mission statement. It's like announcing plans to colonize Pluto, but not drawing up the blueprints for a ship to get there, or a lander. And, much like a plan to colonize Pluto, there's a better chance that the plan will be a disaster than a success. That does not mean we should not head in that direction, though; many government plans to provide services are imperfect, yet they still provide sufficient quality that Americans realize a net benefit.

Here's a fact: you cannot really control what corporations are going to do with money that you hand to them. You can legislate or regulate, but some lawyer in some law firm is going to try and find a hole to drive the bus through. In the end, the money is gone -- likely to executives and cronies that were responsible for the mess in the first place -- and the American people are left to foot the bill. The lesson to be learned: you cannot effectively control what a private party is going to do with money once you hand it to them.

Now, here's a radical idea: if you cannot control what a private party is going to do with the money, then you should put it into the hands of people who are likely going to do something productive with the cash. The billions of dollars that were given to the banks and the corporations were supposed to make it to the common person; however, much like Reaganomics, the trickle-down effect is a bald-faced lie. Those billions of dollars could have been placed immediately into the hands of state or local governments for the purposes of needed road and bridge re-construction, or to the Department of Transportation to create a working American rail system, or to the Department of Energy to fund alternative energy initiatives. Those billions of dollars could have been given to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to bailout distressed mortgages (which, by the way, would also help the lending situation), or to the Department of Commerce for the purpose of creating a small-business initiative program. Hell, those billions of dollars could have been used to create new jobs in education, thus hitting two birds with one stone.

What will the common person do with the income from a job or from a government grant? Pay off their mortgage. Get out of foreclosure. Buy shit. Or, hell, maybe they'll even start saving money. Politically, this would have been far smarter too, for it would cement Obama's position as a populist President, apply political pressure to Congress to cater to his plans, and let the economy figure out its own destiny without further government interference (isn't that what they wanted in the first place?).