Menendez: $17.5B Not Enough For NJ
Providing even more fuel for tomorrow’s Tea Parties, Senator Menendez said yesterday that another round of stimulus spending might be forthcoming next year. $17.5B over 3 years apparently isn’t enough for tax and spenders like Menendez.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today said another round of federal stimulus funding may be necessary to boost New Jersey and other states struggling against the recession, but that the need won’t be clear until the billions already authorized seep into the economy.
New Jersey is slated to receive about $17.5 billion over three years — including $7.5 billion in tax relief — from the $787 billion stimulus bill President Barack Obama signed on Feb. 17. Officials say the money will create or save 100,000 jobs in the state. But some experts are worried that the money will not be enough to turn the economy around, and are advocating for a second shot of funding.
Menendez said Congress will watch indicators like unemployment, tax revenue and consumer confidence before deciding whether to embark on another round of spending next year.
Even more amazingly, our Junior Senator actually claimed that we didn’t do enough during the great Depression and that our response at the time was “meek.”
“The one thing that we learned from Depression-era economics and the responses to that era was that being meek ultimately created a longer depression,” Menendez said. “Being bold is what was necessary. There’s already a discussion right now, even as the stimulus package unfolds, as to whether or not we will need another stimulus package.”
In saying this, Senator Menendez either is ignorant of history or is purposefully ignoring it. In fact, I posted in detail about this not too long ago. A lack of spending certainly did not lengthen the Great Depression; rather, it contributed to it. And in Japan, continual stimulus spending led to a lost decade (12 years to be exact), where its economy grew at a truly “meek” annual rate of 1.1% a year from 1991-2003.
If we follow Menendez’ lead on this, we could very well be looking at the same kind of long term malaise here in the U.S.
Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude! and Red County.
