More Bailout Notes (And Some General Economics Ones)

• The Heritage Foundation cautions Republicans not to jump on Obama’s trillion-dollar “stimulus” package, even with “tax cuts.”  One of the major problems—aside from increasing federal spending by a good $700 billion—is that these “tax cuts” are little more than one-time transfers between a set of taxpayers and a set of individuals who may or may not pay the relevant taxes.  It’s welfare under a new name and does not have the value of real tax cuts.  Naturally, congressional Republicans are, for the most part, abject morons, so they’ll take the bait.  I remember back when I used to like Mitch McConnell.  I still like Elaine Chao, though; she’s just fine in my book and definitely the better half there…
• Arnold Kling gets a little more depressing, and I’m a bit more depressed because I completely agree.
• The Communist Chinese government is overstating its growth? Who could have imagined that they would do such a thing?
• The Heritage Foundation has a quick list of some places to cut federal spending in order to cut the deficit a bit.  I’m all for removing all of those entries—farm subsidies, earmarks, overpayments, and corporate welfare—but these are nothing compared to the 800 pound gorillas of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.  If we don’t get those under control, piddling around at the margin will be almost worthless.