Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Politics

State Bailout Shell Shock: The deeper you get, the sweeter the pain…

Nick Gillespie | 8.5.2010 9:57 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

From the Washington Examiner comes evidence of what motivates Congress to curb their vacay time: Giving away other people's money.

The House will interrupt its Summer recess next week and return to the Capitol in order to take up the $26.1 billion state aide package expected to pass the Senate this week.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made the announcement via Twitter.

"I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers' jobs and help seniors and children," she tweeted.

You know, it's one thing to just take our money and shovel it around like a circus clown under the Big Top, but fer chrissakes, don't insult us with such bullshit, please, about kids and old people and teachers and puppy dogs.

Or with transparently fake promises that this latest bailout won't "add to the deficit."

The bill cleared a critical test vote on Wednesday after two moderate Maine Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, agreed to vote with Democrats. They agreed to do so after Democrats found a way to pay for the bill by reducing future money designated for the food stamp program.

Yeah, sure. More here.

Required reading for the states' ongoing fecklessness when it comes to putting their fiscal houses in order, from the May 2009 Reason:

Failed States: After a long spending binge, governors go begging for a handout. It won't be their last.

And for headline allusionists, we present with limited commercial interruption, New Order performing "Shell Shock":

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: Clang, Clang, Clang, Goes The Trolley or, What Part of "We Are Out of Money" Don't You Understand?

Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and host of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie.

PoliticsEconomicsGovernment Spending
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Hide Comments (54)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

  1. Spartacus   15 years ago

    …the $26.1 billion state aide package …

    It’s a jobs bill, silly!

    1. The Gobbler   15 years ago

      $26B divided by 100,000 (which is far greater than the number of jobs this will save comes out to $260,000 per job. That’s pretty fucked up.

      1. CrackertyAssCracker   15 years ago

        Imagine how much more effective it’d be if they just had a lottery where every citizen gets a ticket, and all the winners get 260k. Make them sign something saying “I’ll use the money to support/educate myself while I figure out out to start my own small business”. Of sourse 95% of the people wouldn’t do this, and would just blow the money, but 5% of the people would actually start their own business. OK, the idea is stupid. But it’d be way better than whatever they are actually going to do with the money.

    2. BeltwayLurker   15 years ago

      Many of them have childrens too!

  2. mitch   15 years ago

    They agreed to do so after Democrats found a way to pay for the bill by reducing future money designated for the food stamp program.

    So the Democrats are claiming they are selling out the poor to aid bourgeois people (public school teachers and pensioners) who are already on the dole? Nice.

    1. Take Care of THIS!   15 years ago

      Poor people will always vote for the Dems, so Pelosi et al don’t feel that they have to do any work to get their vote. Look at how their social engineering policies have decimated black communities, but they still vote for the fuckers by an overwhelming majority.

    2. Hobo Chang Ba   15 years ago

      I also just read yesterday that food stamps are at an all-time high demand right now. It’s strange – you’d think this would be the last program the Democratic welfarists would cut…

      1. PapayaSF   15 years ago

        Silly Hobo, you think they’ll keep this promise? They know the media won’t highlight it, and when they go back on it and Republicans try to hold them to it, they’ll be attacked by Democrats and the media as cruel and heartless bastards who want Americans to starve.

  3. Fluffy   15 years ago

    Mitch beat me to it.

    “Let’s take food from the poor to make sure public school teachers don’t take a pay cut or face layoffs!”

    1. Brett L   15 years ago

      Poor people don’t give money to political campaigns.

    2. Number 2   15 years ago

      Silly boys…

      In a year from now, when this bailout bill is all but forgotten, Pelosi will be screaming about the poor who are going to be hurt by the “heartless” cuts in the food stamps program, which morons like Snowe and Collins will agree to fund by promising future cuts in the state bailout program. Then, the following year, when the state bailout program comes up for renewal…

      You get the idea.

      1. PapayaSF   15 years ago

        OK, I’ve really got to read entire threads before making my point, to make sure somebody hasn’t already made it. That’s my second -1 Redundant for the morning….

        1. West Coaster   15 years ago

          But due to threaded comments, your posts precede (in reading order, that is) the ones you step on. Only if one looks at the time-stamps would one realize that PapayaSF got there second. 🙂 So I blame threaded comments for this.

  4. Tim   15 years ago

    Gotta keep the NEA flush, they’re gonna need them after the beating they’ll get in November.

  5. Torontonian   15 years ago

    If I were a betting man, I’d wager that the Federal Reserve will soon be authorized to hold bonds issued by the states in addition to US treasuries and GSE debt.

    It’s much easier to bail out states by quietly giving them access to the Federal Reserve printing press, than by going through the messy (and visible) process of allocating funds from the Treasury.

    1. CrackertyAssCracker   15 years ago

      You say “Authorized” like they don’t already have complete discretionary power to do whatever they want with their printing press.

  6. Warty   15 years ago

    I love me some New Order. We used to listen to Blue Monday before football games in high school. That seems really odd now.

    1. The Other Kevin   15 years ago

      I still listen to New Order. Nick, thanks for the mention.

    2. T   15 years ago

      While I like the original, I’m a fan of Orgy’s version. No youtube at work, or I’d find it for you.

    3. PapayaSF   15 years ago

      Off-topic but +1 anyway. Just the other day listened again to a favorite cut: Forbidden City by Electronic, the New Order spin-off.

  7. kc   15 years ago

    Chris Christie videos: the antidote for that feeling of depression, despair and nausa brought on by reading this article.

    1. kc   15 years ago

      I’m back and feel much better now, thank you You Tube and Chris Christie. Y’know, I used to think it was just looking at Pelosi that made me ill, then I felt sick hearing her voice on the radio last week; then today I realized even reading her tweets will do it. So, yeah, what is sickening is what she’s saying, not the package that’s saying it.
      Well, that, too……

  8. Fist of Etiquette   15 years ago

    I don’t know which is worse, KMW’s suddenly animated gifs or these 2MB pictures. My state is out of cash and my browser is out of cache. Whoa is me.

    1. West Coaster   15 years ago

      My state is out of cash and my browser is out of cache.

      But I thought HTTP was a stateless protocol…

  9. Elena Kagan   15 years ago

    Many people ask me, “What is money?”

  10. ?   15 years ago

    They agreed to do so after Democrats found a way to pay for the bill by reducing future money designated for the food stamp program.

    I like how in news stories Snowe and Collins are always trading their votes for something, when everyone knows there’s no trade happening. They’re down with TEAM BLUE! whenever they’re needed, and they vote the other way when they’re not.

    Paranoid conspiracy theory: The “traders from Maine” journalistic clich? is the collusive production of quotes and cites for future Democratic campaigns, so shit like “cut food stamps!” can plausibly be blamed on other Republicans later.

    1. Pablo   15 years ago

      Notice they reduced “future money” “designated” for food stamps. Not money currently being spent. And like the “doc fix” for Medicare I’ll bet that they will quitely sneak in and restore the funding for food stamps or whatever vote-buying scheme was negotiated down to get this.

      1. Pablo   15 years ago

        It’s the state of the nation!

        1. Hobo Chang Ba   15 years ago

          New Order reference?

          1. Pablo   15 years ago

            Yeah I’m glad someone else knows that song! From Substance 1987.

      2. Ron L   15 years ago

        “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday….”

  11. Bee Tagger   15 years ago

    “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors and children,” she tweeted.

    If only Twitter allowed 200 characters, we could also hear about the free puppy giveaway

    1. Bee Tagger   15 years ago

      2 hours later I notice that The Jacket made the same basic joke in the write-up.

  12. sage   15 years ago

    Great alt text on the mag cover, Nick. Don’t ever stop using that picture. Seriously.

  13. Judy Wyatt   15 years ago

    Oh wow, OK that makes a lot of sense

    http://www.remain-anonymous.at.tc

  14. John   15 years ago

    Not one comment from any of the usual suspects who defend the public sector unions as fair negotiators of contracts or accuse their critics of “blaming the janitor” for the world’s problems.

  15. mr simple   15 years ago

    Don’t give up the game until your heart stops beating.

  16. J sub D   15 years ago

    The bill cleared a critical test vote on Wednesday after two moderate Maine Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, agreed to vote with Democrats. They agreed to do so after Democrats found a way to pay for the bill by reducing future money designated for the food stamp program.

    Not even fuckin’ trying to be credible.

  17. P Brooks   15 years ago

    The bill cleared a critical test vote on Wednesday after two moderate Maine Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, agreed to vote with Democrats.

    Stop calling them that. Just call them “retards”.

    1. Citizen Nothing   15 years ago

      What did you think that “-R” stood for, PB?

      1. kc   15 years ago

        aww, common, don’t give those with IDD* a bad name by association with those two!

        *Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

  18. Mike M.   15 years ago

    I was wrong, I thought the state bailout would come during the lame duck session after the election.

    The dems have obviously decided they can’t afford to wait that long and need to buy as many as possible right now.

  19. ?   15 years ago

    The deeper you get, the sweeter the pain

    That made my sphincter wince.

  20. R C Dean   15 years ago

    They agreed to do so after Democrats found a way to pay for the bill by reducing future money designated for the food stamp program.

    I’ll have to try that with Mrs. Dean:

    “But honey, I found a way to pay for my African safari. By reducing future funds designated to buy your new car!”

    1. Spartacus   15 years ago

      If it works, let me know.

      Back on-topic: the vote-buying for this Fall’s election has officially begun. Now more shameless than ever!

      1. 2010 Voter   15 years ago

        Now more shameless than ever!

        Every vote they buy will result in two votes against them.

        1. Spartacus   15 years ago

          I wish I could agree with you. But once unions and old people are bought off, that doesn’t leave much in a non-presidential-year election. I hope I am proved wrong.

  21. The Ghost of Jonathan Swift   15 years ago

    by reducing future money designated for the food stamp program

    If I may offer up A Modest Proposal …

  22. BakedPenguin   15 years ago

    Well, the thing about true faith is that it doesn’t require an ounce of fact in order to believe. This is true of religion or belief in government.

    1. Rhywun   15 years ago

      “the thing about true faith is….”

      I see what you did there.

  23. Mike.S.   15 years ago

    This sort of shit makes me so angry I can’t begin to articulate it.

    I want them to fucking die—in the electoral sense—all of them. I want November to be a massacre of historic proportions. Think Varus and three ambushed Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest, AD 9. Think Cannae. Or German airborne troops on Crete (well, except they actually won that campaign; you get my drift….)

    I want blood running in the gutters of DC. I want UAW and SEIU retirees shaking pencil cups on street corners, and freezing to death while huddled over subway grates. I want their children and grandchildren to die of scurvy and kwashiorkor, flies lighting on their swollen cracked lips, their bellies bloated like dead toads on a blacktop road.

    Strictly in the metaphorical sense.

    There is no way to overestimate the greed, fecklessness, stupidity, and ego of the fucking assholes we keep sending to Congress to represent us. And the fucking Supreme Court guts the Constitution at every opportunity. One can only assume we’ve gotten the government we’ve repeatedly asked for, and thus deserve.

    How is a person not to sink into despair over all of this?

    1. blubi   15 years ago

      Lighten up, they will run out of money eventually, it?s only a matter of how bankrupt the country will be when it happens and how long it will take to get there.

      I may not live to see the day, so emigration is my backup.

  24. Mike.S.   15 years ago

    This sort of shit makes me so angry I can’t begin to articulate it.

    I want them to fucking die—in the electoral sense—all of them. I want November to be a massacre of historic proportions. Think Varus and three ambushed Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest, AD 9. Think Cannae. Or German airborne troops on Crete (well, except they actually won that campaign; you get my drift….)

    I want blood running in the gutters of DC. I want UAW and SEIU retirees shaking pencil cups on street corners, and freezing to death while huddled over subway grates. I want their children and grandchildren to die of scurvy and kwashiorkor, flies lighting on their swollen cracked lips, their bellies bloated like dead toads on a blacktop road.

    Strictly in the metaphorical sense.

    There is no way to overestimate the greed, fecklessness, stupidity, and ego of the fucking assholes we keep sending to Congress to represent us. And the fucking Supreme Court guts the Constitution at every opportunity. One can only assume we’ve gotten the government we’ve repeatedly asked for, and thus deserve.

    How is a person not to sink into despair over all of this?

  25. ?????   14 years ago

    thank u

Please log in to post comments

Mute this user?

  • Mute User
  • Cancel

Ban this user?

  • Ban User
  • Cancel

Un-ban this user?

  • Un-ban User
  • Cancel

Nuke this user?

  • Nuke User
  • Cancel

Un-nuke this user?

  • Un-nuke User
  • Cancel

Flag this comment?

  • Flag Comment
  • Cancel

Un-flag this comment?

  • Un-flag Comment
  • Cancel

Latest

How Tariffs Are Breaking the Manufacturing Industries Trump Says He Wants To Protect

Eric Boehm | From the July 2025 issue

The Latest Escalation Between Russia and Ukraine Isn't Changing the Course of the War

Matthew Petti | 6.6.2025 4:28 PM

Marsha Blackburn Wants Secret Police

C.J. Ciaramella | 6.6.2025 3:55 PM

This Small Business Is in Limbo As Owner Sues To Stop Trump's Tariffs

Eric Boehm | 6.6.2025 3:30 PM

A Runner Was Prosecuted for Unapproved Trail Use After the Referring Agency Called It 'Overcriminalization'

Jacob Sullum | 6.6.2025 2:50 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!