For just one week we should ban the verb “stimulate” and the noun “stimulus” — and substitute instead the more honest “borrow,” or “print,” or “debt”; as in “The government plans to borrow another $1 trillion for the economy,” or “The administration today decided to print another $300 billion in cash.” Or “Congress met to consider a $1 trillion debt program.” But as it is now, the euphemisms only take us ever more distant from reality, as trillions of dollars are bandied about as if they were mere five and tens in the government wallet.
Indeed. The Insta-Dad’s take on the initial bailout seems to have turned out right, alas: “The bad thing is that the federal government has figured out that it can borrow a lot more money than it previously thought.”