Peter Goodman, the business editor for the perilously liberal Huffington Post, has come up with a new highly-derogatory term for people on the right that believe there isn't an unlimited amount of money at the government's disposal.
His Monday headline read, "Bleeding Cash Conservatives Wasting Money To Punish Vulnerable Americans":
These days we need a new term to describe a strain of politics that has become dominant in many areas of civic life, from the foreclosure crisis to long-term unemployment. We are living through what may be called the age of "bleeding cash conservatism," a time when powerful and mean-spirited authorities waste taxpayer money on their own version of feel-good policies that punish vulnerable people who have landed in trouble.
What was Goodman's gripe? One was people who borrowed more money in the previous decade on homes they couldn't afford not being bailed out by taxpayers:
We see this notion at work in the continued unwillingness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the government-controlled mortgage behemoths -- to write down loan balances for underwater borrowers (those who owe the bank more than their homes are worth). Housing experts and even economists inside these two institutions have calculated that forgiving some loan balances would be a net benefit to the American taxpayer, who is now on the hook for Fannie's and Freddie's books.
How awful for taxpayers that didn't over-leverage themselves nearly into bankruptcy to not want to spend their money to bailout those that did.
But Goodman wasn't done pointing fingers:
We see this same strain of thought at work in Congress and in state houses across the land, where Republicans have managed to limit the continuation of emergency unemployment benefits for many of the 5.1 million people who have been officially jobless for sixth months or longer.
Yep, 99 weeks or almost two years isn't enough. Taxpayers should continue forever I guess to fund the unemployed.
That's worked so well in Europe the past couple of decades, hasn't it?
Regardless, Goodman scolded, "They are bleeding cash conservatives, adopting policies that are guaranteed to weaken the economy while pursuing outcomes that feel satisfying, bravely drawing the line on sending a few hundred dollars a month to people who would presumably use their checks to buy yachts and country estates."
Well, the bleeding heart liberals took over Congress in January 2007 when the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent and 36.5 million Americans were in poverty, or 12.3 percent.
After over five years of liberal policies, the unemployment rate stands at 8.2 percent and 46.2 million are in poverty, or 15.1 percent.
So Mr. Business Editor for the Huffington Post, how are liberal policies working out?
