Well, they finally did it. Much to the GOPs dismay President Obamas Economic Stimulus package has enough votes to move for a final action to pass the bill through the senate. To do so the Democrats that wanted the passage of the bill needed a hand full of Republicans to sign on and they got them.
Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins both republicans from Maine and Arlin Specter from Pennsylvania, gave the green light for the over-bloated spending package the GOP has been fighting to stop for weeks now. In doing so they angered many fellow republicans and their constituents.
This shows a lack of solidarity among the republican base. So many Americans are infuriated by the approval of the bill they may jump ship on the party in search of real conservatives. The republicans had the chance to be reborn in the failure of the controversial spending plan but failed to come together when it mattered the most. I guess I was wrong about the spine I thought they were growing. Caving to the Stimulus plan with the amount of pork it contains goes against the core republican values of capitalism.
The stand they took in abandoning their party and the American people they are supposed to be serving, the citizens who voted them in to office, could prove to be the end of their careers. Any one who votes republican (i.e. their constituents), will remember this day of economic infamy. Come next election they will be easily challenged for their senate seats by any one who is willing to exploit their turncoat position on this pork bill.
Susan Collins defended her decision to brake ranks with the republicans saying, “I hope they will look at the fact that we were able to cut $110 billion of unnecessary spending from this bill. I think that’s a good accomplishment.”
Nice try Suzy but you forget that most of us can do simple math. $800 billion from the taxpayers most of which has no hope of creating lasting jobs in the private sector. Government spending on infrastructure will eventually come to an end than so will the jobs that came with it. $800 billion to create 3 million jobs. That’s money well spent, over $257,000 per job. How much will these jobs pay? We all know it’ll be a small fraction of that quarter of a million dollars.
The balance is pork.
So What does Pork Look Like?
Here is an excerpt of the 700 page document: Title VI, Financial Services and General Government, says that “not less than $6,000,000,000 shall be used for construction, repair, and alteration of Federal buildings.”
Another example of lard courtesy of Daniel Henninger of The Wall Street Journal: The House wants to amend Section 2(3)(F) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, which will permit payments to guys employed to repair “recreational vessels.” Under Incentives for New Jobs, we find a credit to employ what the bill calls “disconnected youths,” defined as “not readily employable by reason of lacking a sufficient number of basic skills.”
Translation — Lets pay guys to build and fix Yachts with Tax dollars. And Lest pay people who are deemed to be Not Readily Employable with the peoples Tax dollars.
One thing is for sure, there is a lot of WIENER running around Congress these days.
The passage of the Pork package is a sign of new times in Washington; And costly ones at that. The stimulus (if you can stand to call it that), gets the green light paving the way for reckless spending on everything from A to Z. But not to fear Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry says its only 60% spending and 40% tax cuts.
Thanks Senator I’m sure now I’ll sleep better in this Cracked World!
