(DIR) Hitori Dake no Renga - The Literate Anti-Comic
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       Hitori Dake no Renga - Light My Fire (44)
        
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 (IMG) panel-44.jpg
        
       And now, the news. The bill on President Obama's desk (or shortly
       to be, as this entry goes to press), ostensibly an economic
       recovery package, has a total price tag of $787 billion. That's a
       lot of bake sales.
        
       In the Wall Street Journal's breakdown, there are certainly many
       items that could be considered stimulus, such as approximately
       $290b in tax cuts and around $35b in transportation and public
       works grants depending on what you count. I'm not going to get
       into the social and assistance spending as good or bad; it should
       be pointed out that quite a bit of the rest of bill also goes to
       various entitlements, individual unemployment/health benefits,
       various program grants (with, yes, earmarks), and a long list of
       pent-up projects that will now be funded. Needed or not, it's
       hard to call some of that stimulus.
        
       This sort of spending skyrocket isn't just this administration's
       doing; we still have the $700b TARP bank program from President
       Bush, which still has more distributions to make. Already there
       are rumblings, including from Obama himself, on what to do with
       this deficit, and that's not going to be pretty. Everyone wants
       something done, just not that same something; what I'm starting
       to wonder is, is there such a thing as doing something for the
       sake of doing it and damn the consequences? Even heavy, pure tax
       cuts have an immediate cost and we can't print dollars forever.
       Are we sure that any quick, massive action of this scale won't
       make things shakier?
        
       Nevertheless, for better or worse, the bill is on his desk and
       guaranteed to be signed. We shall see.
        
       That is a real $1 bill on fire (slightly retouched), and my hand
       trying not to get burned. It cost
 (IMG) eight dollars
       to get the picture right. I did it in my bathroom in case there
       was, let's say, an accident.
        
       Copyright 2009 Cameron Kaiser except noted. All rights reserved.
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