In Need of A New 'New Deal'?

[bluedem77]

Marie Cocco
Washington Post, September 18, 2008
http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/cocc080918.htm

So Alan Greenspan thinks this could be among the worst of the worst, a financial crisis that ranks as "a once-in-a-half-century, probably once-in-a-century type of event."

Greenspan was speaking Sunday on ABC on the eve of the stock-market plunge that followed the demise of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America. These in turn followed the federal seizure and expected taxpayer bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which followed the federally engineered, taxpayer-backed rescue of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan Chase. When Greenspan says this all could become a once-in-a-century type of event, does he mean to invoke the Great Depression?

I hope not. I want Greenspan to be wrong again -- just as he was in 2005 when he said there was no speculative housing bubble but just "froth" in a few local markets.

But the more fundamental reason I hope Greenspan is wrong is because a crisis that approaches the worst of the century would mean that millions of Americans would become homeless, starving and so desperate for help that -- gasp! -- we might need a new New Deal. And we can't afford a new New Deal in good part because Greenspan in 2001 gave his approval to President Bush's signature tax cuts. Enactment of these tax cuts was an early marker on the road to the great unraveling. In Need of A New 'New Deal'?

[Union Thug]

1. Screw Bush's tax cuts. The wealthiest should be taxed at 90%

and that's how the new New Deal is paid for.

[WarbirdForObama]

2. How about a "New Deal" on the level of

a civilian equivilent of the Military.

Now, before your jaws hit the floor, hear me out.

Obama has already brushed on the idea, this just takes what he was suggesting a step further.

We pay people to be in the Military. We provide housing, assistance, medical/dental coverage. We send them all over the world, doing obstensibly, our bidding.

Why not something similar in a civilian capacity? Different divisions would handle things like Ground Crews during disasters, construction divisions would be put to use assisting in the development of roads, bridges, etc. Science divisions would be put to use working on things from green power R&D. The list could be endless.

A person would sign up, the same as the Military. They would serve a standard term of enlistment. They would go anywhere in the country they are needed. When they leave, we have something similar to the GI Bill.

Think the Military, without the weapons, bombs, and the focus being on war/defence/offence, but rather supporting the country from the inside, and providing support to the citizenry.

Is this idea utterly crazy???

[TankLV]

5. yeah - just what the world wants now - hords of americans sent out to them to do god knows what TO

them -...

uhh - NOT a good thing to contemplate afte the disasters of the last eight years, don't ya think?

What are ya gonna do - say to the rest of the world "trust us" after EVERY FUCKING TIME we have fucked them over these past eight years?!

[alittlelark]

3. He's helping Grover to 'drown it in the bathtub'

.... he is an intricate part of this debacle and is attempting to distance himself from it. (HA-HA)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. The old New Deal will work just fine.

Again.

[silverojo]

6. I wasn't broke till Bill Clinton tried to fix it.

Welfare reform, my ass!