As the House and Senate begin their reconciliation battle over their respective stimulus packages, it’s important to look again at some important elements that have been cut from each package in the recent haggling.
It has been well reported that, incredibly, Republicans of both houses demanded that none of the stimulus money be used to build or repair schools. The Senate package cut all school construction money, whereas the House managed to hold in $20 billion, although it is difficult to say if, even this pared down amount, will make the final cut.
But that’s not all. The Senate’s version prohibits any money from going toward building or improving….. are you ready?….community parks.
Parks for God’s sake! Jungle gyms. Baseball diamonds. Swing sets. Green spaces.
Here’s the relevant clip that has the exact language of the anti-park amendment: The Coburn amendment would prohibit funding in the bill from going to gambling establishments, aquariums, swimming pools, zoos, golf courses, stadiums, community parks, museums, theaters, art centers, and highway beautification projects.
Oh, yeah, that works. No gambling casinos or parks. Right. I’d group those two together. No black jack or…..trees.
By the way, after Coburn insisted upon his amendment, he voted against the package anyway.
I was alerted to the Senate’s NO PARKS prohibition by Robert Garcia—the head of the LA-based City Project. A former civil rights lawyer, Garcia is one of the state’s tops expert on the importance of green space to the health of a city and its inhabitants—and why the absence of urban parks is an important social justice issue..
Since the anti-parks thing seemed crazily mean-spirited even by Congressional standards, I asked Garcia what he thought.
“I suspect its because Republicans have plenty of parks in their neighborhoods,” he said grumpily. “Here’s the thing, it’s easy for the Congressional leadership to cut parks, because the popular conception is that parks are a luxury.”
To the contrary, Garcia said. “Parks can provide physical activity to reduce obesity, provide positive alternatives to gangs, crime, and violence. And parks bring people together. Parks are essential to quality of life.”
Most important for the stimulus plan, park construction will produce lots of jobs, said Garcia. Since most of America’s urban areas have far fewer parks and green spaces than affluent communities, park building should be a priority.
Hey, FDR was entirely clear on the importance of park-building as a jobs creating strategy, Garcia pointed out. “The New Deal included the construction of 8,000 parks and 40,000 schools and the Civilian Conservation Corps expanded open space all over the nation and, in so doing, put unemployed young men to work across the United States.”
Garcia told me that there are loads of existing park projects all over the U.S. that are “shovel ready” as the stimulus planners like to say.
“For instance in Los Angeles, there is already an LA River master plan in place. This is one of those “shovel ready” projects that would open up parkland along the 52 miles of the LA River. In doing so, it would create jobs for youth and adults.”
“The LA River is just one example,” he added. According to Garcia, there are like projects from coast to coast that could supply much-needed jobs the minute there is a go-ahead.
Garcia said the House version of the stimulus doesn’t forbid money for parks. So he hopes that the Congress will wake up to the fact that, along with infrastructure and renovations for energy efficiency, parks and schools are exactly what this stimulus bill should be funding.
It’s not too late.
Look, in a time of financial crisis, we should be spending money only on necessities and try to get by with what we have. Otherwise, you have a pork bill, which the so-called stimulus bill really is. Wild “New Deal” style spending does not work.
Also, let the local governments deal with the schools and parks as they see fit and with their own money. If you want gangs off the street, buy them video games rather than build parks which turn into recruiting grounds for them. At least it would cost less and more kids would appreciate it. (May I suggest Wii Fit.)
The federal government’s spending on a “wish list” makes as much sense as you buying three cars to help the economy. That money could be used in better ways. (If you want an extra car, buy my old one–cheap.)
If anything, the federal government should be selling excess land like mad to raise funds. It sure has enough acreage to make a dent in even Obama’s wild waste. Just think how much we could get for selling the Ellipse Park outside of the White House and letting developers turn it into condos with a view of the Rose Garden!
Oh, where is the spending on military? Oh, that’s right! Obama is cutting military spending. Who needs defense?! We just need bricks and parks.
For Obama to create jobs and succeed like FDR, he needs a war time economy. That’s what pulled us out of the depression after FDR’s big government deals failed. Let’s just make up a war and pretend to fight it. Heck, we could build tanks, planes, and ships and go back and forth across the Atlantic until we have full employment. Best of all, no one dies!
But, if we need a real enemy, let’s invade Washington, D.C., and return it to a more limited role as our founders planned.
End of rant.
The rightwing is, of course, generally ignorant and ill-informed – prone to routinely distorting history and confusing ideology with economics. But this stimulus bill is pushing them to levels of dishonesty that are staggering. Here’s a case in point, pushed of course by Rush Limbaugh and eagerly lapped up by the type of morons who park themselves in these threads:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_02/016841.php
These people are descending into an even more hysterical form of madness than we’ve become familiar with – they lie every time they open their mouth. Increasingly, the “debate” over the stimulus package means being drawn into a bout with zealots, cranks and the “hate America” Right. (The Club for Growth, an extremist anti-government group has branded moderate Republicans like Charlie Crist treasonous – supporting the bill was “the ultimate act of treason” in their words.) The fact that the GOP’s messaging is increasingly being driven by extremist groups and a racist drug addict is a measure of the moral and intellectual corruption endemic to this “movement.”
Water, Power, Transportation, Renovation, Coservation, Communication, Sanitation and Infrastructure of any kind should be in this bill.
Forget most tax breaks and giving everyone 1000 dollars.
Money for parks? – Nice try, but that belongs in a another bill.
I agree that most tax breaks are bad economics for stimulus, but what about support for social services at the local levels – including keeping cities from having to layoff workers, including police, etc.
Also, the needed infrastructure bill – as opposed to funding for “shovel ready” projects that might otherwise be cut – can’t be a quick bill. Thus it’s not the kind of immediate stimulus, no matter how prudent as public investment over the long term. The truth is that any spending that generates employment will be the best stimulus – but it should be directed to pressing needs as much as possible.
Pokey says “Infrastruture of any kind should be in this bill” including “Conservation” — but not parks. How’s that again?
Parks and school fields are infrastructure. A
And what is there to conserve if not parks and green space?
Applying public health criteria to infrastructure investments could create jobs and improve health, quality of life, and equal justice across the nation.
Voters in November taxed themselves and approved billions for parks and open space. Across the nation, voters approved 62 of 87 open space referendums. Congress should fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund for buying open space. In California, communities of color and low income communities have made the difference in passing billions in resource bonds over the past ten years.
Creation of multibenefit green spaces including parks and school fields can create local green jobs, clean the air and water, provide flood control, promote climate justice, and convert toxic sites and brownfields to green fields, as well as providing places for physical activity to improve health and bringing people together. Youth conservation corps programs can provide part time jobs, and keep students in school and out of the regular job market.
The Limbaughized-emPalined GOP is truly spiraling into insanity and indecency as their isolation becomes increasingly evident. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor has proven himself an almost perfect clone of the drug-addled, racist Master of the GOP Universe by sending around an utterly classless, profanity-laden video attacking AFSCME:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_02/016847.php
This is a Congressional leader who is sending out this garbage. Unbelievable…except its true. The resident hyserical “conservative” moron here is not as anomolous as one would like to think – even of an intellectually and morally exhausted rightwing.
The plumbing in our house is leaking, the power fails regularly, our phone only works half the time, the roof leaks, we have poor insulation, inefficient heating cooling and lighting, and our drive way is full of muddy pot holes.
Now, contrary to most politicians think we actually do have a limited amount of money to spend and we need to spend it wisely and get our house in order.
We could install an aquarium, build a swimming pools, build a elephant/wolf zoo, install a putting green, build a sports stadium, make a back yard look like a park, build a private movie theater, buy art, and other beautification projects.
But maybe we should fix the roof , plumbing and power first. You tell me.
Reg – as far as “Health Information Technology”, I am with you on this. The right is trying to stir up a hornet’s nest of fear against some common sense ideas.
Yes, I can get behind extending unemployment benefits, COBRA assistance and food stamps, but what we really need now is technological and infrastructure improvements nationwide.
But, “Any spending that generates employment will be the best stimulus”? – Paying people to do sand art and other less useful activities is inane. We need to think INVESTMENT and ROI else we will have just run up another large credit card bill with nothing to show for it but fond memories of Russian Caviar, French Champagne and Blond Hookers.
What I meant by Conservation – was Energy Conservation
We need two things, one right now and one very soon – stimulus spending and investment in infrastructure. I don’t think the stimulus bill can do all of the latter, but it should definitely be shaped to do as much as possible, given that it’s pulled together quickly. I just don’t want complex infrastructure improvements and green energy investments thrown together slapdash. There seems to be an effort in this bill to get those balls rolling though. The theory of fiscal stimulus, however, isn’t necessarily related to any particular area of employment. The tax cuts are surely the least productive parts of the bill. Even supply-side tax-cut-uber-alles economists like Barro, who has entered the fray as a naysayer, won’t defend these cuts – mainly because the evidence is in that previous tax-related attempts at stimulus failed miserably, as conservative Bush-stimulus proponent Feldstein now admits (Barro has concocted a back-up rationale for Reaganesque tax cuts that’s based purely on speculation married to religious faith. He’s also floating “evidence” based on spending in WWII that is, in plain words, bogus.)
reg: The rightwing is, of course, generally ignorant and ill-informed
If this statement came from a reliable source it might matter; however, it didn’t. reg attacks the messenger rather than the message, because he doesn’t know anything about economics and can’t battle the issue on its merits.
However, I will admit to being ignorant over how this bill will create the 4 million jobs that Obama claims that it will, and I am ill-informed if it does not contain pork for special interests, as it seems that it does.
reg, let the conservatives handle the business end while you can concentrate on those who want a free ride. We each have our specializations.
Now, please give me that breakdown on which programs will create the 4 million jobs and when–unless you are ignorant, ill-informed, or simply a lying liberal. If you can’t, then I suggest that you shut-up and quit attacking those who really see through this phony stimulus bill.
zzzzzzz
“The rightwing is, of course, generally ignorant and ill-informed”
Michael Steele, case in point on the links below – do people get any stupider (other than the stark raver on these threads) ?
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/02/straight_outta_hooverville.php
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/02/steele-government-jobs/
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2009/02/michael-steele-on-this-week/
Economics must be over reg’s head for him to doze off.
Where’s the source and support for the 4 million jobs? Yeah, go run and hide your head. You should be ashamed for acting so boastful while not knowing anything about the subject on which you write.
GOP economic history:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/02/quote-day-021109
We are all getting worked up about 800 Billion, while Geithner is planning on spending 2000 Billion on — no one is sure on what. Maybe it is to buy some of the estimated $10 Trillion in assets that the banks can’t sell and refuse to show on their balance sheets.
I work for a Commercial Bank, we have plenty of money (BILLIONS EXTRA), but we are NOT MAKING NEW LOANS. Instead we are buying solid commercial loans at big discounts from hedge funds and other banks.
What we need is not to rescue these banks but to just close, BK them and re-open under new management.
Bank of America Corp. strategist – Bernstein said the government should increase deposit insurance, seize assets, shut “large†banks and encourage takeovers.
“The history of bubbles clearly shows that the significant consolidation of the financial sector is inevitable,†the strategist wrote. “The latest Treasury program is simply another attempt to stymie the consolidation process.â€Â
I agree with Bernstein, B of A and CITI are the first on my list to be seized and shut.
B of A – Market Cap is $30 Billion (Got $45 Billion plus $118 Billion in Guarantees)
CITI – Market Cap is $20 Billion (Got $25 Billion – TARP)
JPMorgan – Market Cap is $97 Billion (Got $25 Billion – TARP)
Wells Fargo – Market Cap is $74 Billion (Got $25 Billion – TARP)
Pokey,
I agree getting your house fixed and not spending your money on a putting green or movie theater is a no-brainer.
Your logic fails, however, when you suggest that a city or region is analogous to your house, and infrastructure investments in parks and schools are analogous to putting greens and movie theaters.
Healthy, livable communities include housing, parks, schools, roads, and jobs for all.
Overbuilt, dense urban areas torn apart by congested highways contributing to global warming that leave children of color living in poverty with no access to cars, parks, or schools and the highest levels of obesity and a lower life expectancy than their unemployed parents are the problem to be addressed. That’s harder than fixing the hole in your roof.
Robert, All good points about green spaces and parks. In fact I am in full support of building lots of parks and green spaces.
But, I am just against putting them in the stimulus bill. I would rather provide out of work people with extended unemployment benefits, heathcare and basic infrastructure spending that fix the basics requirements of our nation.
Democratic economic history:
As Reason’s Jesse Walker footnotes it: “And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, ‘Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?'”
Pokey… thanks for a breath of sanity in these fevered comments.
I’m interested in any comments you would have on mark-to-market regulations.
BTW, let the automakers go too – let more efficient folks buy the assets and employ them.
Oh… forgot to mention
The best place to get infrastructure money (not to be confused with stimulus) is from out nations incredibly bloated educational system – from pre-K through post-G.
We spend enormous amounts compared to other countries miseducating students who grossly underperform compared to those from the same countries. We (including businesses) force people to get BA/BS degrees for jobs where they don’t need them, and our Universities spend a lot of their time teaching nonsense and a lot of the rest doing remedial English and math for the students we just overspent on.
What Moore just asserted isn’t true…the reality is far more complex to the point that the opinion put forth is total bullshit. I’ve got links to various hard data that refute it but I’m not going to bother to provide them since he just mouths off with any reductionist spew that feeds his biases, with nothing remotely resembling evidence. Anyone who thinks the key to financing infrastructure is to cut our spending on education is – not to put too fine a point on it – obscenely stupid.
Mark to Market
One of the key issues that keeps coming up in financial circles is whether we should suspend Mark to Market Rules – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_to_market
If we did suspend the rules it might have the effect of keeping banks from having to sell assets to maintain mandated requirements and ratios. However if we did suspend the Mark to Market rules, than no one would have any idea what the true current value of a company especially investors and regulators.
My recommendation is to leave the valuation rules alone, but let banks appeal the ratio requirements if they believe the true value of their assets are substantially more than the market will pay. This would have the effect of keeping the books honest, add flexibility to the system and keep banks from having to dump assets a fire sale prices.
Pokey,
Interesting alternative – sounds pretty good. When the market for something is temporarily dead, mark-to-market clearly undervalues it. When the market is in a bubble, it over-values it.
Charles Keating recently complained to me about how mark-to-market wrecked his company.
Pokey – the drumbeat to end mark-to-market by hacks like Newt Gingrich is the height of “free-market” hypocrisy. Of course in an extreme circumstance regulators should be allowed to re-visit certain rules for temporary relaxation – especially if the issue is something like a transient dip in short-term market valuation re: leverage rules. But this isn’t what the bankers want, nor their hack advocates like Gingrich are asking for. They want to allow fantasy valuations (i.e. mark-to-model) as a routine matter. Investment is risk-laden. I’ve watched some of my retirement funds disappear because these scumbags were pursuing short-term bumps in stock and attempting to make out like bandits on fees rather than return on investment. It’s no biggie to nationalize the banks and restructure them if need be. We should probably be pursuing more of that and less bail-out. But suspending common-sense accounting rules based on market valuations would be, as you suggest, a recipe for even more disaster. As for Keating, no honest bank robber should be behind bars while that sack of shit walks the streets.
From “Trust Me: Charle Keating and the Missing Billions”:
“If (Keating) is such a devout communicant of his faith, why did he peddle hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of junk bonds to old people when he knew his empire was in serious jeopardy?”
Nuff said.
I was demonstrating how one can contribute and troll at the same time.
While it is true that Charles Keating told me that, I only included it to generate a reg bowel movement, and sure enough…
Providing footnotes and rationales for your own inane comments…pretty pathetic.
Just can’t spit that hook out, can you, Reg?
Truly you have superior powers. Impressive.
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