The stimulus bill, not surprisingly, passed both houses of Congress. I say not surprisingly because our congress is filled with liberal democrats who don’t know how to do anything but tax and spend. Now the White House is home to one of the biggest pork spenders of recent years. President Obama was a big spender during his short lived career as a senator. Hillary Clinton our new Secretary of State is also very high on that list of pork addicts.
The newest pork bi-product of date is a tasty new meat called “Stimulus”. Obviously high in cholesterol and fat its going to cause many a heart attack in the months to come once people discover what we’ve all been signed onto.
The bill that The House submitted contains increases in discretionary spending by $317 billion; an increase of over 80%. That’s the largest single year increase in the history of our government. And mandatory spending increased by $308 billion for an increase of over 20%. The vast portions of this spending will not create jobs but will eliminate jobs. Thats right ELIMINATE JOBS! Many of the advancements in technology that the Stimulus bill calls for will end hundreds possibly thousands of jobs.
A prime example of this was spelled out by Carl Rove, a FoxNews contributor. Rove pointed out very clearly that $20 billion of the bill goes for Health Information Technology, this will streamline the process eliminating the need for data entry clerks, receptionists and other hopital office staff.
Another $44 million is to be spent on repairing agricultural buildings in Washington, this would produce a few construction jobs but these are not stable jobs and are here today and gone tomorrow.
In other words lets spend almost $800 billion on government and hope it creates jobs that pay for it all. This is a stupid bill with no hope of accomplishing anything but mortgaging the futures of our children and grand children.
This leap towards socialism is a giant leap backward for our social structure. The false impression that an increase in government spending will create jobs and a stronger economy holds no water or every socialist economic system in Europe would be enjoying a superior performance to ours. They are not. America has been the economic juggernaut of the world for well over a century because we’re not socialists.
Obamas’ staff is proving to be at a loss for a means to explain how this spending debacle is going to save the economy and create jobs. They continually write it off to, “If we don’t do something now things will get worse”, this is not a solution this is a scare tactic.
Sign it or else does not justify the action.
If the Republicans used this kind of tactic they would be accused of being dictators and impeachment proceedings would commence. In fact I see this as a HUGE opportunity for the Republicans, none of them voted for it in The House, not one. And only 3 (soon to be unemployed) republicans in the Senate voted for this mess.
There is no one for the Democrats to blame this on. If it fails it is squarely on their shoulders. I realize that much of this bill was penned by House Speaker Nancey Pelosi, not Barrack Obama, perhaps this will be one of the Presidents bigger mistakes of his presidencey. Although he has defended the controversial bill from the get go so maybe The House Speaker had more direction from The President than previously believed.
Quite clearly, who ever wrote the bill, the President has an appetite for Pork and has now declared it the 5th basic food group.
Meats, Dairy, Grains, Fruits and Vegetables - and Stimulus?
Quite clearly, Its a Cracked World!
With the passing of this stimulus bill we will be lucky if we get pork we will probably all be eating opossum after its passing.
Well folks I guess Steven doesn’t like Possum.
But pork is plentiful now so we should be able to get some at a good price. As they say “Supply and Demand”, lets hope the same holds true of Senators and Congressmen.
IF this bill fails they’ll all be unemployed come next election.
Whereas I know you were none to pleased with the election outcome something has to be done. As Pres. Obama stated this package isn’t perfect. I know it’s going to have a lot of so called “pork” spending. I t bothers me that future generations will end up footing this MASSIVE bill, but the U.S. is in dire straits at this time. Why aren’t you complaining about the 800 billion dollar BAILOUT of our screwed up banking system. Oh that’s right, it was passed under the Bush administration.
I don’t profess to understand all the ins and outs of what this will entail, and maybe it won’t create the millions of jobs the democrats are talking about. In my opinion, we have to start somewhere. This is going to be a very LONG process, and who knows maybe these tax and spend liberals will end up eating crow. Only time will tell, and in 2 years the voting public will return to the polls and voice there opinions.
Tom, I understand your frustration with the heat The President is taking over this bill. While I agree that “something” must be done. I feel that something else should have been done. Much of the spending in this bill doesn’t belong on this bill; these appropriations belong on another bill. I feel that the Democrats are taking advantage of a bad situation to further their agenda under cover of an economic panic. Only one option was ever produced; this one. And the fact that not one House Republican voted for it. That’s not bipartisanship and that’s what President Obama promised in his campaign.
And for the record I have been critical of The Bush Administrations handling of the Bank Bail out see Tarp - Part 2 (http://crackedworld.com/category/economics/page/2/).
None the less the bill has passed and only time will tell who’s right. Quite frankly I hope your right and I’m wrong. That would be good news for us all.
Thanks for your opinion on the new stimulus package. I totally understand the premise that there should be no government spending in a time of economic crisis; it is a classic fiscal conservative point of view, which I normally admire. I do have some things I would like to point out, however.
As much as I hear about Karl Rove being a genius of some kind - usually in reference to campaign strategy - he’s way off base in speaking on the Health Information Technology’s potential to displace workers as a reason for being against it. Physicians for National health Programs reports that for every dollar spent on health care, 31% goes to paperwork and administrative costs. If the price of a doctor’s visit could be reduced by 31%, would you refuse to go to that doctor’s office because it put people out of work? Of course not. Arguing that maintaining a highly-bureaucratic process is a sound economic decision is like saying we should all get rid of telephones in favor of reviving the pony express; it makes no sense what so ever.
As for the construction jobs, there are actually two reasons for the $44 million investment. First, according to the Associated General Contractors of America, for every $1 spent on construction, $6 are pumped into the economy - If you purchased a stock for $44 and got a return of $264, would you spend the $44 even if you were in debt? Secondly, the department of agriculture buildings in question have not had major repairs in decades. Repairing them would reduce the operational costs (heating, cooling, repairs, etc.) and save money in the long run.
Before the most recent economic collapse, the European Unions’ “Euro” was actually stronger than the US dollar in international trading. According to the DEA, in a 2006 report, increasing caches of Euros were being found in Columbia and Mexico because of the favorable exchange rate when converting in to the more widely used dollars to pay off South and Central American police forces. Additionally, the European Union had an overall 10% unemployment rate prior to the economic problems, compared to America’s ~8%. Part of the reason for the EU’s growth was that it was constantly adding new countries as either full participants or as “special trading partners” allowing it access to markets the United States has had trouble getting into (particularly in North Africa [Morocco and Algeria] and Eastern Europe [Poland and the Balkans]).
I absolutely admire your critique of the Bush Administration’s bailout bungle, by the way. Especially since receiving the money that our grandchildren’s grandchildren will be paying off, executives gave themselves billions of dollars in “ain’t we cool” bonuses while blithely laying off millions of middle class and working class American taxpayers.
These are excellent points Micheal. But I still maintain that many of the spending points in the bill are not designed to create jobs. And that’s what the Stimulus bill is supposed to be about. The reduction of health care costs by 31% would be a huge benefit, but should be in a health care bill. I feel that the Democrats are placing ALL of their ideologies in this one bill where they don’t belong to avoid a debate in Congress over them.
You have to admit the volume of pork in this bill is over-the-top.
Does anyone actually believe that health care costs are going to be reduced by 31%?