The Democrats are salivating at the Mother of All Earmarks. The latest rumors I've heard have been up to 1.3 trillion dollars of government spending.

Not many people understand the economy well enough to have an opinion--just a general uneasiness. I'm uneasy AND I have an opinion--the Democrat plan is a disaster of biblical proportions, designed to produce a world-wide depression of profound depth.

There were actually three "New Deals". Hoover, like Bush, implemented aspects of the New Deal before Roosevelt came to power. Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, and then implemented it again--all without substantial effect, which is why they call it the "Great" depression. Only the complete national mobilization for the second world war finally drove down the unemployment rate (although you still couldn't buy anything...)-->

The real difference between a recession, which is a normal part of the economic cycle, and a depression, which is a collapse of the economic system, is completely a matter of government policy. The easiest way of describing a recession is a kind of economic diet--eat less and exercise more and get healthier. The junk food gets taken off the menu.

To understand what the Democrats are proposing, just watch the post-holiday commercials for magic diets that allow you to eat all the crap you normally do, skip the exercise and still lose weight. In spite of the fact that these diets simply don't work in the long term (and often, not even in the short term), doesn't dissuade people from spending billions for them, or those "bigger penis" pills for that matter.

I'll be on the lookout for sensible proposals to get the economy on track, but welfare checks and make-work programs are proven failures--not that this will dissuade Democrats ever hopeful of recreating European socialism on these shores.

H/T Ed Driscoll