Obama spent almost his entire time as President-elect talking about how we needed a real stimulus package, which would focus upon addressing the toxic real estate assets and large amounts of infrastructure spending.
So, is that what we got? Hell, no.
What we got was a Democratic spending orgy that only shows depraved indifference to the well being of the country.
In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make "dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy." Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There's another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.
Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus.
Really, I didn't think anything could get Republicans to close ranks this quickly after the drubbing they took in November...but this greed fest did it. Hell, even 11 Democrats couldn't stomach the thing.
And, believe it or not, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The Dems are still going to want to spend trillions of dollars nationalizing health care in one way or another.
This all matters because there are actual things that should be done to help fix the economy, and the Democrats refuse to do any of them. In fact, most of the "stimulus package" is going to beef up welfare programs for the hordes of unemployed and, now, unemployable the Democrats just created.
This is the Smoot-Hawley of the 21st Century.
Enjoy.
1 comment:
Over at The Scratching Post, I've been ruminating on what this means to international relations. Considering that all this spending will be financed with foreign investments just when those countries need to borrow, too, I'd say we're going to make a lot of enemies with this.
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