Miraj Patel » Government Spending

Cordoba House and the Feds

Miraj Patel — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:54:47 +0000

The debate over the proposed Cordoba House drags on as factions on the right make cries of Muslim arrogance, parts of the left cry of right ignorance and those of us who believe in freedom standby as the two sides squabble over what should be a non-issue- and the debt continues to pile on. There really should be no debate over the issue, especially not at the Federal level. The Feds have no jurisdiction over New York City zoning laws; not to mention that disallowing an Islamic place of worship when there are not one, but two churches in the same area, violates the Bill of Rights and is outright unjust (as is even the thought that the 9/11 attacks are synonymous with the Islamic religion.)

That put aside though, there really are bigger things for the Federal government to worry about. From the recovery that never was to high unemployment to debt that just keeps adding up at almost every level of government- we have a lot of problems. But DC lives in a bubble and despite calls for change two years ago by the Democrats and now by Republicans, it is still politics as usual.

Raising the debt ceiling

Miraj Patel — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:12:56 +0000

Washington is at it again with yet another debt ceiling debate. After the administration’s rampant spending over the last year, we once more find ourselves very close to the maximum legal level of national debt. With that, we again see those who are making pleas that the limit needs to be raised in order to avoid a default on national debt. This argument has been used again and again over the past few years, every time yielding the same result- increasing the ceiling. How long will this illogical argument suffice?

If we continue to increase the debt ceiling every time we approach it, then what is the point of even having such a limit? Considering where we are heading right now, I think it is pretty clear that a stand on the national debt ceiling should be taken now as opposed to later. Instead of raising the ceiling, spending can be cut in order to keep the debt below our current legal limit. In fact, without a firm debt ceiling, it doesn’t look like those is D.C. looking for quick political points will ever stop the spending- that is, until it is too late of course. We need to take a stand on this debt and we need to let the politicians know it. We need to let them know, that this is no longer acceptable:

Image credit goes to CNN.

Stimulus: projections vs. reality

Miraj Patel — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:08:49 +0000

Earlier this year, the stimulus was pushed through Congress and quickly signed by President Obama in what supporters deemed a necessary step and one which would further recovery. Just as with the current healthcare debate and most spending plans, there were projections created by the government during the debate process. Below is a projection created by the administration’s economic team back in February concerning the affect the stimulus would have on unemployment as opposed to without it:

The maroon dots are the actual unemployment numbers (thank you to innocentbystanders.com for adding those in.) As you can clearly see, the predictions were drastically off. History has shown that government projections are often overly optimistic- social security and medicare being perhaps the most titanic examples. This graph doesn’t tell us what the unemployment number would’ve been had the stimulus not been passed (and we will never know the exact figure), but it is quite clear that the stimulus has not been able to curtail unemployment as expected by Washington economists. It also shows how little grasp many politicians and politically-sided economists actually have of the market.

With unemployment currently over 10%, the argument can be made that the stimulus has in fact not helped the situation. Either way, we are still left with the ~$780 billion tab that came with the legislation and it is clear the government was wrong in its outlook.

The monstrous miscalculation by the Obama administration should really serve as a caution for citizens in that we can not simply take what the government tells us as truth- especially when it comes to projections concerning markets. Government predictions are often wrong, and in some cases distorted due to political reasons (such as trying to push through legislation.) This is why it is important to consider several different sides when it comes to any government legislation, especially massive spending increases such as the stimulus, bailouts, or state-subsidized healthcare.