# What is the Republican plan to fix our economy and why will it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 3, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354 "2010-11-03T18:04:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/41 "2010-11-04T01:54:24Z")
> [@erez](#): > > Yet another thread where butthurt statists display their laughable understanding of economics and of how businesses work… Ok, do you have proof Bush’s tax cuts led to enough economic growth to make up for the lost revenue? Bonus if you can do it without statistics. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/42 "2010-11-04T01:59:36Z")
Well, they did put out… dare I say it, dare I say it (snort) The Pledge to America. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/43 "2010-11-04T02:06:07Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I know you do not think particularly highly of religions but churches do help the poor in many ways. Oh, using the offer of aid to blackmail desperate people into submitting to being preached at. How very _noble_ of them. :rolleyes: With money they’ve extracted mostly from gullible lower class people to boot. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/44 "2010-11-04T02:11:32Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Oh, using the offer of aid to blackmail desperate people into submitting to being preached at. How very _noble_ of them. :rolleyes: > > With money they’ve extracted mostly from gullible lower class people to boot. Still practically speaking, the poor listening to the Gospel and having a good meal is better than being hungry in the streets? Unless you’re such an atheist fanatic that even the slightest concession toward theism is wicked and evil you have to acknowledge churches are doing some good. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/45 "2010-11-04T02:22:32Z")
> [@Critical1](#): > > I have yet to see anything from the Republicans that even begins to resemble a plan. Ideologically, of course, they’re not obliged to come up with one; their theory is that the economy will usually fix itself if government leaves it alone. Electorally, of course, they’re **usually** obliged to come up with one anyway, but this cycle the voters were more forgiving/trusting on that point. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/46 "2010-11-04T02:23:23Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I know you do not think particularly highly of religions but churches do help the poor in many ways. > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Oh, using the offer of aid to blackmail desperate people into submitting to being preached at. How very _noble_ of them. :rolleyes: > > With money they’ve extracted mostly from gullible lower class people to boot. > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Still practically speaking, the poor listening to the Gospel and having a good meal is better than being hungry in the streets? Unless you’re such an atheist fanatic that even the slightest concession toward theism is wicked and evil you have to acknowledge churches are doing some good. No-one’s arguing otherwise. DT’s point is that it’s not disinterested help, they do it for their own motives. If it didn’t result in converts they wouldn’t bother. [QUOTE=John Mace] I hope they don’t have a plan. Government can’t “fix” the economy. The economy is going to have to fix itself, which I’m confident it will do. So the Dems and Pubs can argue for the next 2 years about how it “fix” the economy, and during the time those of who actually work in the economy will fix it. [/QUOTE] Government workers don’t work? Or they do not participate in the economy? Or they participate in some parallel non-economy? And, name one single time when this tactic worked. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/47 "2010-11-04T02:28:46Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Still practically speaking, the poor listening to the Gospel and having a good meal is better than being hungry in the streets? Unless you’re such an atheist fanatic that even the slightest concession toward theism is wicked and evil you have to acknowledge churches are doing some good. There are a lot of altar boys who might argue with that. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/48 "2010-11-04T02:31:57Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > No-one’s arguing otherwise. DT’s point is that it’s not disinterested help, they do it for their own motives. If it didn’t result in converts they wouldn’t bother. Exactly. If Pepsi ran a soup kitchen where they handed out Pepsis and covered the walls in advertisements for Pepsi, that’s an advertising program not a charitable venture. And that’s what religious “charity” typically is - an advertising gimmick. ---
**Author:** ![erez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@erez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erez)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/49 "2010-11-04T02:35:52Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Ok, do you have proof Bush’s tax cuts led to enough economic growth to make up for the lost revenue? > > Bonus if you can do it without statistics. Why should I want to prove such a thing? Did I make such a claim? I said that you were wrong in thinking that “The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities” is non-partisan. Was it a nice, seemingly non-partisan name of this organization or was there some other reason for your misconception? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/50 "2010-11-04T03:04:34Z")
> [@erez](#): > > Yet another thread where butthurt statists display their laughable understanding of economics and of how businesses work… Fine. How about these: > [@](#): > > The Bush administration created about three million jobs (net) over its eight years, a fraction of the 23 million jobs created under President Bill Clinton’s administration and only slightly better than President George H.W. Bush did in his four years in office. > > \ > > The current President Bush, once taking account how long he’s been in office, shows the worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records. > > SOURCE: [http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/](http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/) > [@](#): > > **Economy Made Few Gains in Bush Years** > Eight-Year Period Is Weakest in Decades > > The number of jobs in the nation increased by about 2 percent during Bush’s tenure, the most tepid growth over any eight-year span since data collection began seven decades ago. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output, grew at the slowest pace for a period of that length since the Truman administration. And Americans’ incomes grew more slowly than in any presidency since the 1960s, other than that of Bush’s father. > > Bush and his aides are quick to point out that they oversaw 52 straight months of job growth in the middle of this decade, and that the economy expanded at a steady clip from 2003 to 2007. But economists, including some former advisers to Bush, say it increasingly looks as if the nation’s economic expansion was driven to a large degree by the interrelated booms in the housing market, consumer spending and financial markets. Those booms, which the Bush administration encouraged with the idea of an “ownership society,” have proved unsustainable. > > SOURCE: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR2009011102301.html?hpid=topnews](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/11/AR2009011102301.html?hpid=topnews) > [@](#): > > On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked. By contrast, the country’s condition improved on each of those measures during Bill Clinton’s two terms, often substantially. > > SOURCE: [Closing The Book On The Bush Legacy - The Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/09/closing-the-book-on-the-bush-legacy/26402/) > > Census Bureau Report referred to above: [http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf](http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf) (PDF) ---
**Author:** ![Chen019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/51 "2010-11-04T05:34:59Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I know this is a very general question and Republican Governors and House members each have different issues to deal with and ideas to fix them, but for the most part it seems to be lowering taxes on people who are deemed job creators. If I’m wrong please correct me. > > So what evidence can they (and by extension you) provide that this will work? Aren’t they opposed to amnesty? This would help reduce the trend of ‘importing poverty’. > [@](#): > > The findings of this study indicate that poverty in America is increasingly being driven by immigration policy. With immigrant households now accounting for more than one-fifth of the poor, and one-fourth of child poverty, immigration policy should become an integral part of any discussion of poverty in America. In fact, it is not too much to say that an understanding of immigration has become essential to understanding the cause of poverty in America. [http://www.cis.org/articles/poverty\_study/execsummary.html](http://www.cis.org/articles/poverty_study/execsummary.html) [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112167023](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112167023) ---
**Author:** ![erez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@erez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erez)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/52 "2010-11-04T06:31:51Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Fine. > > How about these: Thank you for proving my point. There are only two possibilities: either you did not hear about the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble and you honestly didn’t realize that their dates hugely affected any such comparison or you knew about them but posted this anyway. You conveniently wrote about the presidency without writing about the control of the Congress, which is easily just as important. Why? See this: [http://dshort.com/articles/GDP-and-politics.html](http://dshort.com/articles/GDP-and-politics.html) - there is no pattern. And before you make another bad assumption that by writing this I’m defending all of Bush’s decisions - I’m not. I just don’t like to see such blatant manipulation of the data in an attempt to prove a partisan point. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/53 "2010-11-04T06:37:19Z")
So, in your non-partisan and unbiased opinion, your opinion is non-partisan and unbiased. ---
**Author:** ![erez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@erez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erez)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/54 "2010-11-04T06:46:07Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > So, in your non-partisan and unbiased opinion, your opinion is non-partisan and unbiased. Who told you that I’m non-partisan? I pointed out gaping factual holes in Whack-a-Mole’s partisan arguments. Nothing more. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/55 "2010-11-04T07:04:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I hope they don’t have a plan. Government can’t “fix” the economy. The economy is going to have to fix itself, which I’m confident it will do. So the Dems and Pubs can argue for the next 2 years about how it “fix” the economy, and during the time those of who actually work in the economy will fix it. Pretty much. But that won’t happen if government keeps messing up the playing field. The best thing the government could do is just stop doing so much. Announce a freeze on major new regulations. Adopt a credible plan to at least control the increase in spending and flatten it out with some reasonable deficit reductions as a result. Stop demonizing investors and business people. Launch a review of the health care bill with an eye towards reforming/removing/delaying the more expensive aspects of it. Start serious discussions towards reforming entitlements, because the markets are getting increasingly spooked by the coming entitlement tsunami. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/56 "2010-11-04T07:23:20Z")
The same one I’ve been hearing about for forty years? ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/57 "2010-11-04T07:59:20Z")
What the economy needs is high government spending in the short run to boost demand combined with a credible plan for fiscal austerity in the longer run to reduce the deficit. What the Republicans will likely propose will do exactly the opposite: more tax cuts for the wealthy which will do very little to boost demand now but which will seriously damage the long-run fiscal balance. The historical record in the last three decades is pretty clear. The Reagan tax cuts played a major role in the massive 80’s deficits. The Bush(1)/Clinton tax increases played a major role in bringing the budget into balance in the 90’s. The Bush(2) tax cuts helped create the large deficits of the last decade. And now the Republicans seem to want yet another decade of even higher deficits while piously crowing about fiscal prudence. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/58 "2010-11-04T09:54:20Z")
> [@erez](#): > > Thank you for proving my point. There are only two possibilities: either you did not hear about the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble and you honestly didn’t realize that their dates hugely affected any such comparison or you knew about them but posted this anyway. You conveniently wrote about the presidency without writing about the control of the Congress, which is easily just as important. Why? See this: [http://dshort.com/articles/GDP-and-politics.html](http://dshort.com/articles/GDP-and-politics.html) - there is no pattern. And before you make another bad assumption that by writing this I’m defending all of Bush’s decisions - I’m not. I just don’t like to see such blatant manipulation of the data in an attempt to prove a partisan point. My partisan point from the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal? Cuz we all know how liberal Rupert Murdoch is right? :rolleyes: The Washington Post…another partisan hack of a newspaper. :rolleyes: The Atlantic maybe but they quoted from that well known partisan governmental agency known as the Census Bureau. :rolleyes: You can plug any graphs you want. You can blame congress if you want. I’ll re-post this: _“The current President Bush, once taking account how long he’s been in office, shows the worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.”_ Which, I might add, was the specific issue I was answering (Bush’s performance on creating jobs). I provided distinct data points on his jobs record and you want to blabber about partisanship. :rolleyes: Most of that was during a republican held congress as well. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/59 "2010-11-04T10:22:51Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Pretty much. But that won’t happen if government keeps messing up the playing field. > > The best thing the government could do is just stop doing so much. Announce a freeze on major new regulations. Adopt a credible plan to at least control the increase in spending and flatten it out with some reasonable deficit reductions as a result. Stop demonizing investors and business people. Launch a review of the health care bill with an eye towards reforming/removing/delaying the more expensive aspects of it. Start serious discussions towards reforming entitlements, because the markets are getting increasingly spooked by the coming entitlement tsunami. Oh, so the economy is gonna fix itself. That’s cool, that means the galaxy sized amounts of money that have been handed out to those that were responsible for the crisis in the first place, can be entirely seized by the government and used instead to cull the deficit? Careful with your blinders, if worn too tightly, they can hamper the flow of blood to the head.. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2010, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354/60 "2010-11-04T12:05:22Z")
> [@Capitaine\_Zombie](#): > > Oh, so the economy is gonna fix itself. That’s cool, that means the galaxy sized amounts of money that have been handed out to those that were responsible for the crisis in the first place, can be entirely seized by the government and used instead to cull the deficit? If you mean TARP, that gets paid back. The problem being that Obama and the Democrats spent the paybacks too. Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-republican-plan-to-fix-our-economy-and-why-will-it-work/559354.md?page=4)