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Top Democrat: No Better Stimulus than Food Stamps and Jobless Benefits
Dagen McDowell: I think this goes back to the argument we have been having for several years now. That is, what role does government play in our lives? What makes this country great? Is it the government or is it the private citizens? I think that right now we are at a pivotal moment in our countries history where we are in danger as a nation of becoming so dependent not only on government money, but on the government making decisions for us as individuals that either we stop it in its tracks or we go the way of Europe. Not just food stamps but medicare and all of the above.
Ben Stein: When my parents got out of graduate school, they both worked for the government. My father went through WWII in the navy-so in a way they are. Government is incredibly important-let's not sell that short. Lets not sell short the fact that taxpayers pay for things-firefighters, military, police sacrifice a great deal for us-lets not sell government short-lets also agree that individual initiative is what America is all about. Lets also agree food stamps-you are entirely right-is a symptom of a problem but we also don't want any Americans going hungry, it is a complicated mess but let's not sell individual initiative short-that is the key issue.
Charlie Gasparino: I think the President did us all a big favor here. He did a great service by making that comment that you owe everything to the government. He didn't quite say it like that, but he said something along those lines. What I think he did-and Adam will agree with me on this-is he drew the lines pretty stark. You America have a choice and hats off to you if you make that choice. By the way-with all deference to Ben I wasn't saying that you shouldn't appreciate some points of government. President Obama was saying that the way out of this was government and if you really believe in that then you will vote for this president and if you don't we hope that Mitt Romney makes the opposite argument. I think that the president did a great thing here-he drew the ideological lines very starkly and now you the American people have a choice.
Adam Lashinsky: I agree with you up to a point-I agree with you that he drew a stark political point Charlie-where I disagree is not that you need to rely on government, government will do it for you, we need more government. The message was don't kid yourself that you were able to accomplish this without the interstate highway system, without the FAA keeping your planes safe, without all the things the government does to society.
Sen. Shumer to Fed Chief: Get to Work
Ben Stein: I'm not sure what Chuck Shumer is expecting Ben Bernanke to do. Ben Bernanke already had the pedal to the metal in terms of monitoring creation and monitoring stimulus. I wish Chuck Shumer would tell his fellow democrats who control the senate to not let us go off the fiscal cliff and not let us have taxmagedon-the ball is in their court, not in Bernanke's court. I don't know what else Bernanke can do-there is a heck of a lot more Shumer and his friends can do.
Adam Lashinsky: I think Neil that in their little world, as you can see from Bernanke's smile reaction that was a little pat on the back in saying I wish we were doing a little better here.
Dagen McDowell: It was like, here is the mirror. Mirror, meet Senator Shumer-Senator Shumer meet the hypocrite starring back at you. This is insane! You know what he is really saying to Bernanke-he is saying hurry up and get President Obama on the stick and reelected because if they are going to blame the Fed for all this.
Charlie Gasparino: Let's face it, this was demagoguery. This was patently false-it ignored everything that the fed has done since the financial crisis and what Bernanke has done-it is completely false and it ignored the reason why Ben Bernanke had to print money twice or maybe three times-because fiscal policy which is controlled by the white house and congress utterly failed.
Former White House Official: Summer is Making Kids Fatter and Dumber
Ben Stein: I don't know what he is smoking-he is a smart guy who reminds me of the people I went to law school with who used to put glue in a big bag and put it over their heads-people get fat because they eat too much. People get dumb because they don't read and they don't think, they don't discipline their minds. It has nothing to do with what month it is or if they are in summer school or not, the whole thing just makes no connection at all.
Dagen McDowell: Do you see the kind of food that kids eat during the summer? Come on man. You know what? Let's have a 12 month school year. Who in this world gets three months of vacation? It's not going to cost any more money, just make the teachers work a few more weeks every year. Why is that a bad idea?
Charlie Gasparino: I think one of the problems is that these kids aren't working. There are no jobs so what do they do? Just sit around and drink beer and smoke pot and eat.
Adam Lashinky: We are ignoring a very contentious class or economic issue here. If you read Pete Orzek's piece and you read it carefully he is saying that what he is really talking about here is poorer kids-poorer kids aren't doing enough to stimulate themselves during the summer and richer kids are.
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