The Stimulus(?) Package

What a week so far! Today we saw the Master of Disguise at his best. On January 9 our President spoke at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia about the economy and said: "only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe... Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy". Today, at a session with 13 CEO's at the White House, he addressed the press and said: "In the end, the answer to our economic troubles rests less in my hands, or in the hands of our legislators, than it does with America's workers and the businesses that employ them. They are the ones whose efforts and ideas will determine our economic destiny, just as they always have." Wait, is he changing his tune? Is he tacking right?

Mr. Obama does not need the Republican votes to pass this bill. But why do the Democrats want this vote to be bipartisan? Could it be, as Rush Limbaugh has suggested, that the Democrats know that this package won't work? That their purpose is to garner votes from the people that are benefiting and not to stimulate the economy and create jobs? So, knowing that the package won't work they want the Republicans in it so that they can all share in the travesty.

As I write this post the bill passed with no Republican votes. Way to go, Republicans! Now the Republican Senators must hold their own. They must hold firm and demand that the bill be changed. That's the only way they can derail this train. For our part we must contact our Senators and let them know that we do not accept this package the way it is. The country is going to incur a huge debt. Let's put the money where it will do the job.

Conservatives are gaining momentum and they must maintain it. They need to get this bill changed.

You can see a summary spreadsheet of this bill, but the devil is in the details. Subsequent posts will break down each category into smaller items that show where this money is really going and that these projects are just run-of-the-mill Congress earmarks. This is a spending, not a stimulus bill: $102 billion for unemployment benefits with $20 billion increase in food stamps? And how about $41 billion for school modernization, $39 billion for school "services", whatever that is, $25 billion for other "high-priority" school needs and $87 billion increase in Medicaid, most of it probably going to illegal aliens? Are these projects job-creating? Will they stimulate the economy? I doubt it...