U.S. Politics as an Airplane

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• Sounds a bit like this comic espouses reverse trickle down economics. It proposes that some people want the economy to falter because they will turn out fine regardless. In real life the issue is a bit more nuanced than that. Some people do not want government to increase its spending and borrowing budgets because that will take money from people and businesses who have far more justified reasons to spend their own money (and will likely do a better job spending and saving money than the US government will).
  I think advocates of President Obama are focusing on Mr. Limbaugh's wish as that gives them something to distract the public with while continued excessive military spending continues to be a drag on the US economy.

• I think that's a great concept, but in reality the Republicans have been busy doing big spending and just not funding it, running up the national debt instead. Some Obama supporters may use the comments to 'distract' the public, but the military spending wasn't Obama's idea and the overspending isn't his innovation.

  It's just amazing to see them come with straight faces and complain about big spending after what their party did over the past 8 years. On the other hand, don't get me wrong - I'm _not_ for big government / big spending either, I just find it rich that NOW all of a sudden all of these folks claim to give a damn. Politicians, I know.

  I'd personally actually rather see taxes raised to fund the extra spending so that people would finally get the picture of just what a huge job o mismanagement the government is doing - putting it all on IOUs for our kids is just obscene. And who knows, maybe seeing what is really being spent would get some outrage & change where being able to vote a higher debt every year clearly doesn't. Allowing the IRS/government to take our money directly from paychecks before people see it has to rank as one of the biggest mistakes (or brilliant scams?) from last century to allow out-of-control government growth as well, but I'll try to just stick to the cartoon theme.

  If you're wondering, I considered myself a Republican until they decided that Jesus was their king (and people worried about KENNEDY bringing religion into the White House!?!?) and I read enough to see that fiscal responsibility wasn't any more their aim than that of the Democrats.

• There are two reasons why someone might want Obama's plan to fail. One is that they support the side that lost, and do not want the winning side to succeed and thus prosper. This is a natural way of thinking for many people. Mean-spirited perhaps, but I do not think even rich people with a 'parachute' want the economy to further tank and endure the resulting depression.

  A more reasonable reason to want Obama's plan to fail is that if someone feels the plan is a bad methodology that might eventually 'succeed' (perhaps taking longer and costing more than an alternative) there will be long-term negative effects from this 'success.' Imagine if, after conventional medicine failed to cure a patient, that patient went to a witch doctor and felt better. A believer in conventional medicine would want the witch doctor to fail, or the recovery be attributed to natural means or eventual success of conventional treatments and not some hocus-pocus, and rightly so.

  Opponents of the Iraq war hoped it could have been deemed a failure sooner and a troop withdrawal made sooner. They felt failure was the quickest path back to where they wanted the country to be headed, and also a lesson learned that intervention of that nature was not a sensible methodology. Same sorta thing. If you think we are headed the wrong way, the failure and abandonment of that tack is something to hope for. "Admit you're wrong and turn the car around!"

  Personally I think there might be some good in Obama's plan but it's probably not a good value at the price we are paying. I feel that the key elements to recovery are entrepreneurship and hard work. Small business and home ownership, particularly 2nd home rental income / vacation property is where true recovery will come from. Many regular folks that have steady income would love to buy a foreclosed home, put some sweat equity into it and get it on the rental market but the balky credit market makes this very difficult. Unstuck lending, and tax credits for efficient renovation of this sort of property would be a big step forward. If the government allowed tax credits and rebates for a second home / income property purchase provided the property received insulation and high efficiency heating and cooling I think that would be a big help. An energy audit could be required, some communities offer them for free.

  It's also an opportunity for short-term employment for handyman, painting and landscaping jobs. Put people to work while they are looking for better jobs.

  Another way to get the housing market moving again would be affordable assumable loans for low-income buyers that would allow home buyers to get out of a home if circumstances changed (loss of job, divorce, etc.) and the home passed on to another candidate. A security deposit would have to be held. An agreement that forces the home to be remarketed before a foreclosure (with credit damage and home neglect) would protect the lender and the homeowner. An added incentive of allowing the homeowner to add value to the property and recover some of that value at the time of sale could also be included.