Crazy — Un-thought-out and promising more than it could ever live up to, even should that be desirable. Which it is not.
First from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”
So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic “stimulus,” but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm’s point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.
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Then read what Ernest Istook opined from the on-line Human Events:
The proposed Obama-Pelosi “economic stimulus” would end the era of merely big government and replace it with leviathan government.
“It’ll never go away,” says Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), calling the plan “a permanent increase at a time when we are in the worst financial shape we’ve ever been in.” He adds, “None of this is going to stimulate anything.”
However, President Barack Obama says size doesn’t matter. As he said at his inaugural, “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.”
We should also ask whether it’s Constitutional, whether the plan is being sold with false advertising, and whether we can afford it.
It would require our Treasury to borrow record levels of money from overseas, perhaps more than the world is willing to lend us. It might double our $1.3-trillion deficit that now makes us more dependent on China than any other country.
Since Obama has pledged to root out “unnecessary spending,” then why not start with this “stimulus” bill? Even Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the Senate Budget Chairman, notes that the $825 billion package at best would reduce unemployment rate by “maybe” 1 percent—far less than Obama’s extravagant claims.
The president’s radio address last weekend told us only what he wanted us to know—which means he never mentioned the cost. Pollsters have told Obama and fellow Democrats to describe their plans as “bold” but never to mention the price tag. So much for hard choices!
That $825-billion figure—all borrowed money—also fails to include the interest that must be paid, which will push the total price tag over $1.1-trillion.
Those who look beneath the pile of proposed new debt won’t find a pony, but they will find many false claims:
—The notion that it’s about infrastructure is hype. Only 5% ($43 billion) of the bloated $825 billion package is for transportation, including only 3% for highways. Very little is “shovel-ready” work; most wouldn’t be spent for two years or more.
—It’s not about government efficiency. The $43 billion for transportation spending is overshadowed by five times as much (more than $200 billion) to bail out state and local governments that have overspent their budgets.
—Although Obama stated, “We won’t just throw money at our problems—we’ll invest in what works,” $136 billion of the bill is for unproven ideas—to start 32 new federal programs.
—“Community organizers,” such as the left-wing lobbying group ACORN, would get their own new slush fund of up to $750-million.
—Plenty of other parts don’t pass either the laugh test or the smell test as a stimulus, such as $20-million to re-sod the National Mall, hundreds of millions for contraceptives, $650 million for digital TV coupons, and $250-million for an after-school snack program.
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