ABC’s Amanpour Chafes Over Focus on Debt, Pushes for ‘Another Stimulus’ Big Spending Bill
Looking at government as the best job creator, on Sunday’s This Week ABC’s Christiane Amanpour pushed her guests to agree the stagnant economy and growing unemployment argue for less concern about controlling federal spending and demonstrate the need for “another stimulus” big spending effort. Amanpour was undeterred by the failure of the ongoing “stimulus” spending pushed by President Obama.
“With the political wars over the debt, there is no chance for another stimulus,” reporter John Berman regretted in a set-up piece before Amanpour pleaded with Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers:
Is this kind of a wake-up call, do you think, to shift the political debate from what's been all about debt reduction and shift it back to job creation? I mean, is this an opportunity, for instance, to try to talk about creating jobs, and adding, maybe, another stimulus?
During the panel segment, Amanpour repeated her solution: “Obviously the momentum has been with the debt reduction crowd, so to speak. Is that at the expense of real huge effort on job creation? In other words, what's more toxic, billions of dollars of stimulus, or these kind of unemployment numbers?”
Left-wing New York Times columnist Paul Krugman agreed: “We really need a new stimulus.”
Excerpts from the June 5 This Week, caught by the MRC’s Rich Noyes:
JOHN BERMAN: But now it [the economy] may have to mend on its own, because, practically speaking, there isn't much left the President can do. With the political wars over the debt, there is no chance for another stimulus, no more bank bailouts, there are no federal jobs to offer. And with interest rates at or near zero, the Fed can't do anything to lower them. The President might just have to watch and hope that the American road to recovery, is merely a bumpy road and not a road to nowhere.
....
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, TO AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: So economists are asking, and people are asking, is this kind of a wake-up call, do you think, to shift the political debate from what's been all about debt reduction and shift it back to job creation? I mean, is this an opportunity, for instance, to try to talk about creating jobs, and adding, maybe, another stimulus? Let's say there was no politics involved, in a perfect environment. What would you do to get this off the slow burner?
....
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, TO PANEL: Let me ask both of you [Chrystia Freeland and Paul Krugman], and let me ask you, Martin. Obviously the momentum has been with the debt reduction crowd, so to speak. Is that at the expense of real huge effort on job creation? In other words, what's more toxic, billions of dollars of stimulus, or these kind of unemployment numbers?
MARTIN REGALIA, CHIEF ECONOMIST, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Well, right now, we're looking at a situation where we have a lot of noise coming into the system, and that noise detracts the momentum. So we get an economy that doesn't grow very fast and doesn't create the number of jobs we need. So what you have to do is kind of strip away some of the distractions. The leading distraction right now is the debt ceiling. There ought to be a decision on the debt ceiling. We've had these debates before. They come up repeatedly. We ought to pass an extension to the debt ceiling. If it's done with spending cuts, that's great. That's even better. But the fact of the matter is, we have to get that done. Then we have to make some long-term headway on where we're going with our debt and our deficit. It's binding up the system. People are concerned about what's going to happen to the value of the dollar and what's going to happen to interest rates. And as long as that concern is out there, businesses aren't going to do what they do best, which is go out, compete, and create jobs and make everybody money.
PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: Can I just say, I agree we ought to pass the debt ceiling fast. But the rest, I just disagree. If you ask why are businesses not growing -- businesses aren't expanding because consumer demand isn't there. Consumer demand isn't there because of a combination of high consumer debt and low incomes. What we really need, in an ideal world -- Austan dodged that question -- but we really need a new stimulus, we need more moves from the Fed. We need to really boot this economy up, not just sort of say, well, 'We're getting our house in order,' and expect it to fix itself.
- Brent Baker's blog
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Comments
Great idea
Submitted by forest on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 6:02am.
Go ahead and tack an extra trillion onto our kids' tab for a another government employee union slush fund.
Morning Joe 6:15am 6/6/11
Submitted by cobokat on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 6:40am.
Guest on Morning Joe- Steve Rattner just said that we cannot elect someone who doesn't know who Paul Revere is in speaking of Sarah Palin. Really??!! Unfortunately the country elected someone who doesn't know we don't have "57 states" and who doesn't know how to pronounce the word "corpsman".
Another stupid liberal who cannot learn history lessons
Submitted by TheHistorian on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 6:42am.
For you ignorant and otherwise uniformed liberals that think government spending will get us out of this "downturn" we are now in.
Let's go back and look at the history of the 1930's and 1940's. Good old FDR spent about 40% of GDP in the mindless social programs of the WPA, CCC, and others. It didn't help the US's employment rate; it was still in the 20%+ range for the bulk of the 30's. In 1939 and 1940, the US began to gear up to support WWII. However, it was items like Lend/Lease that still increased our deficit. Still no major change in our unemployment rate.
In 1941-1945, we pulled about 17% of the people out of the economy and put them in uniforms. We actually started a labor shortage, but prosperity still wasn't there. We had controlled labor costs (thanks to FDR and his puppet Congress). Taxes were up, and "victory bonds" were being sold like mad. But we still were generating deficits of the type that Amapour, Krugman, and other liberal shills drool over.
We came back from this war, and had another recession almost immediately (1946 and again in 1948). In 1948, we finally threw out the FDR programs and cut our Federal budget and taxes. At that point, we had amassed a debt to GDP ratio of about 130%.
So Paul and Christy, the lesson you should have learned is that the Government cannot spend you into prosperity. But you two have not learned these lessons, so you both are not ignorant liberals, but actually enter the stupid category where you CANNOT learn the lessons of history.
Dennis Prager
Insanity takes hold
Submitted by ThisnThat on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 6:52am.
Since we're dredging up tired, old, failed actions -- why don't we go way-back and blame the whole thing on Bush again? I'm sure that will work just as well as a new "Stimulus".
Did Krugman consider, yesterday, that many, many more people could get money if obama simply sent 2-year paychecks directly to people?
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
Amanpour is as thick as two planks.
Submitted by motherbelt on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 7:09am.
Typical liberal attitude: if your plan didn't work, it's because you didn't do enough of it.
MB
Submitted by Chris Norman on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 10:17am.
Yep, impose a new and bigger "stimulus" program and when that doesn't work, impose another, and when that doesn't work, impose another - it's straight from the Wile E. Coyote School of Economics. It sounds like Amanpour and Krugman miss those great "Five Year Plans" of the USSR. Why is she still on "This Week" anyway? I thought by now she would have been "reassigned" to doing "special reports" for ABC News that somehow would never air.
Or the right people didn't do it
Submitted by Red Jeep on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 12:18pm.
.
As if....
Submitted by adamsmith on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 7:18am.
As if all the Progressive Socialist programs up til now are such a smashing success. Insanity defined, doing the same thing over and over until you get different results. It's obvious Amanpour is a Soros employee like the rest of them. Liberalism truly is a mental disorder....
Amanapour
Submitted by NVRAT on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 7:29am.
Another left wing idiot economist .
Isn't she on Soros' payroll?
Submitted by buddyc on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 8:26am.
Isn't she on Soros' payroll?
Amanapour
Submitted by rcbcal on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 8:38am.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” MLK
Krugman -- the Broken Record
Submitted by Galvanic on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 8:54am.
I'll give him credit for one thing: He's consistent.
For at least a year, Krugman has been telling us that the reason the Stimulus was underwhelming in its impact on boosting the economy is that it wasn't big enough.
Disregarding the utter waste and fraud in the last Stimulus, not to mention its misdirected focus, Krugman merely wants more of the same.
Knowing Krugman's anti-capitalist leanings, I can only imagine that his objective is to see the economic system collapse into another Depression so that -- not unlike the Thirties -- socialism and Communism have more appeal.
Amanpour
Submitted by jessieH on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 10:28am.
We can call it "cash for kooks", and give it to the MSM.
Christiane is Illogical
Submitted by iveseenitall on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 10:47am.
She says, "In other words, what's more toxic, billions of dollars of stimulus or these kinds of unemployment numbers"
Either/Or---one of the many logical fallacies used by the left. Amanapour poses that our only choice is to print money and "stimulate" the economy or have high unemployment. Instead,maybe we should start THINKING and searching for the truth by using our brains, not our emotions. Moreover, it seems to me that noone in the media has done a thorough job of investigating where all the money has gone so far. I personnaly believe that there is corruption beyond belief in all of this. Who's getting rich?---certainly not the average Joe or Jane.The foxes are in the henhouse (a.k.a. Washington). Disgusting. [Never,Never trust a "liberal" (progressive)]
Soros and Obama are working toward a bankrupt America
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 10:46am.
They want this country to go belly up financially and economically because that will cause the people to embrace the "security" of a totalitarian state with open arms, so they trot out this bought-and-paid-for communist b*tch of a foreigner to help promote their destructive agenda.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Right On!
Submitted by iveseenitall on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 11:40am.
Right on, Dave. It used to be that OUR news issues were delivered by a high school dropout from Canada. Now the lefties have reached out to the Middle East for anti-American, anti-Western shills like Amanapour and Zakaria. How dare people like Barry Obama,et al, who are miles to the left of American values, have the nerve to tell authentic, Constitution-loving Americans what to do. Sad. [Never,Never trust a "liberal"(progressive)]
I truly wonder who takes care
Submitted by Scuba Dude on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 11:03am.
I truly wonder who takes care of the money these people make. I wonder how much debt they would saddle their children with if they ran the household finances like the government?
Economic illiterates, the lot of them.
Liberals are doomed to repeat
Submitted by Beukeboom on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 12:28pm.
Liberals are doomed to repeat their past failures yet expect those failures to succeed. Thus fitting a definition of insanity. No wonder many consider liberalism a mental disease.
Amanpour Raised by Motor Cycle Gang of Apes
Submitted by Avitar on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 12:41pm.
How else to explain her total lack of knowledge of human history. The only orther thing I could think of is she is planning a cut and run in a few years and to leave the US with an unsustainable debt.
If at first you don't
Submitted by Dave81 on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 12:54pm.
If at first you don't succeed...
#1. Go back to Iran where
Submitted by rbosque on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 1:03pm.
#1. Go back to Iran where you came from, that's where your true interests lie.
#2. You're a journalist major, with no expertise in economics, you are way out of your field and it shows.
Amanpour is part of that
Submitted by ant on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 1:10pm.
Amanpour is part of that "noise" that is actually holding back job creation and employment opportunities. It is her attitudes that are the same as many politicians, wherein possibile mandates, taxes, new regulations, etc., are held over everyone's heads and endlessly discussed to the point businesses and independents are afraid to move for fear of the 'helpful government' axe coming down. You want another stimulus, dumbass? Send checks to the citizens.
was she pointing
Submitted by spepper on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 1:10pm.
Was she pointing an RPG under the table at them to make them all agree, that she borrowed from one of her Hamas/Hezbollah buddies?
What Amanpour DIDN'T say
Submitted by Model850 on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 1:42pm.
"In other words, what's more toxic to Obama's reelection chances, billions of dollars of stimulus or these kinds of unemployment numbers"
The stimulus went to keeping
Submitted by amyshulk on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 2:22pm.
The stimulus went to keeping gov't workers from going through the same pain as the private sector.
It was to keep the US from having a cascading effect - gov't workers were able to continue paying their bills AND continue the wasteful "but I want it" spending which in turn kept the people who worked in those jobs employed.
They really thought this would be short lived, and so their focus was to just keep the wheels turning for their employees, and by extension, the rest of the economy.
Makes sense in a way - but piling on regs and creating such uncertainty worked at cross purposes.
Ronald Reagan
Waste of God's efforts
Submitted by gmonsen on Tue, 06/07/2011 - 10:48pm.
Krugman and Amanpour were a waste of God's efforts. How Krugman graduated mystifies me and who in the devil is Amanpour but a progressive arab lackey?
I have come to the conclusion that our Country is getting what we deserve. What we deserve and must get for the 50 years of progressive drift that has led us over the precipice. God help us, everyone...