Left of Right

In many ways, what we need from journalists are less opinions, and not more. Having said that, it may be curious then why a news/political/business/feature reporter might want to add his voice to a chorus of know-it-alls who think their opinions trump everyone else’s—i.e. local bloggers, right-and left-wing columnist, and anonymous commentators on news Web sites.

The answer: because no one has gotten it right, yet.

Too often, people are so attached to the world-views they developed at age 14 to be able to truly consider a different perspective. This is where I think my training and experience might come in handy.
I believe in order to have an opinion that is worth much, you have to be willing to consider multiple perspectives first.

My whole life I’ve had to balance one side of my self against the other. A product of divorced parents, I learned early to listen more than I talked. I’ve always had friends from different backgrounds: rich and poor, popular kids and dorks (I might leaned dorky).

In this polarized political world we live in, the loudest voices are almost never the fairest. This seems especially true when it comes to cable news commentary, though the same can be said about loud-mouths in our everyday lives. Haven’t we all known people who always have an opinion, and pull facts out of thin air—‘did you know they actually found the weapons of mass destruction?’ No, I guess I missed that.

Myself, I come from a conservative home. Well, my mother has always been a Republican. My dad never seemed to care much for politics, but a dislike of President Bush seems to have made him a radical Democrat (my mother tells me he once had the same hate for Jimmy Carter). At different times in my life I have considered myself a Democrat, a Republican and a Libertarian. At age 33, I’m more confused than ever.

This is what I mean: I think businesses are taxed too highly, but I think our tax laws have way too many loopholes for the rich; I don’t think city, county or state governments should ever build anything for Wal-Mart or the St. Louis Cardinals, but I’m okay with CIP taxes that benefit everyone (providing there are no signs put up with taxpayers money promoting specific businesses); I believe in the second amendment, but I have no problem with waiting periods, which I think discourage crimes of passion; I think “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” means we ought to leave the hippies alone, however, I have known at least one person whose life I believe was saved by a trip to jail.

Lately, I’ve been bothered by conservative voices like Ann Coulter saying we’re only making things worse with the recent economic stimulus package. In a letter to fellow conservatives, which is linked on her Web site (the letter can be found at http://www.markskousen.com/visitor.php?offer=10813), Coulter dismisses the stimulus with a rant about history: “true history… as opposed to the public-school propaganda that teaches, for instance, that FDR’s New Deal got us out of the Great Depression, when in reality it only deepened and prolonged it.”

In CFP’s March-11 issue, we were lucky enough to have Dr. Steven Mullins, an associate professor of economics at Drury, put the current stimulus in perspective. He compared the 2009 deficit, which is projected at 8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, to the budget deficits of the 1940s, which were around 20 percent of the GDP.

I've seen Conservatives and Dems both say WWII pulled us out of the depression. Have you ever heard a Republican say that defense spending is good for the economy?

Common sense, and level-headed economists will tell you, that it makes no difference to the economy whether you are spending money on tanks, planes or “shovel-ready” projects. It seems to me the government spending of the WWII era kick-started the economy.

In fact, though no Democrats seem to want to talk about this, George W. Bush’s economic policies, it seems, did a lot to keep this recession at bay.

When I spoke with Missouri State Economic Professor Dr. Tom Wyrick in December for a feature story he told me that the recession wasn’t declared after the second quarter of 2008 because Bush’s tax breaks last spring kept negative growth from occurring. The economists in the Business Cycle Dating Committee later declared a recession during that time saying the tax breaks didn’t present a true picture of what was going on—negating the traditional definition of a recession: two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.

Between Bush’s military spending and tax breaks, the deficit spending his administration did might have helped an economy that’s been sputtering along since 9-11. I’ve found there is some debate among economists over the effectiveness of the President’s tax breaks. However, last May I received around $800 and I know it helped my family.

In February, John McCain’s own economic stimulus plan was $421 billion. It was predictably shot down by Democrats. When Obama’s plan passed it totaled $787 billion. Both numbers are hard for me to wrap my mind around.

If you are ideologically opposed to deficit spending, or any unnecessary government spending, I can sympathize. However, you shouldn’t call yourself a Republican. You should call yourself a Libertarian. And I would have to guess that the economy is not your top priority. Hello, my name is Brian Brown. Welcome to my world.