Madison Powers is the author of this article, she is a guest columnist for CQ, CQ is a news source that gives nonpartisan coverage of congressional activities. The audience is looking more for fact, or accounting than opinion and I believe she delivers that. She writes that economists “no longer debate whether we should be Keynesians; we now debate how to be really good Keynesians.” Keynesians believe that the government has a role and a responsibility in the economy, first seen in action during Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’.
Congress has agreed that money needs to be spent, where can they spend it to get the maximum effect is the question facing them right now. A difficult question – Who gets to survive? Who is going to be thrown to the wolves? When the government gives the banks huge bailouts, and yet we see those same banks tightening the general public’s credit accounts, rising interests rate, and high fees for late payments - it’s easy enough to guess who will benefit the most from the financial stimulus. Maybe that it what she meant about inequality to weather the storm.
It’s going to be very difficult for congress to trim out what most of us consider to be extras from the huge stimulus they are considering, it is clear to most people that special interest groups have become more important than the average citizen.
