3 Issues Bugging Me: #1
Stimul-what?
There have been three issues bugging me for the last week or so and I’m going to go ahead and get them down on paper. (Ha, paper, like anyone uses THAT any more.)
The first thing is this so-called stimulus bill that is just about the clear congress. Just to be clear I agree with President Obama that something MUST be done and must be done right away. No issue with that position and most of what follows should not be perceived as a shot at Obama. Most of what is wrong with the ‘stimulus’ bill could very well be the fault of others. I’m still giving the new President the benefit of the doubt and at this point still hold some hope that he will fix this mess.
Let’s just take a look at this 787 billion dollar package as a whole first. It came out of committee and was voted on in 12 hours. That means that each and every member of the House who voted on the bill (yay and nay) had one thing in common. NONE of them read it. 1100 pages, nearly a trillion dollars in spending that has been characterized by the President as essential to the survival of our economy and none of these people even bothered to read it? I’m not sure that the Republicans and whatever handful of Democrats who voted “no” should be off the hook completely. They did vote down something they haven’t read. On the other hand a number of them asked for time to go over the bill and were refused. One of the things Obama harped on during the campaign was transparency. Wouldn’t this be a good time for him to step in and demand exactly that? Would it hurt anyone to wait 48 hours to really go over nearly a trillion dollars in spending? I honestly think that everyone who voted yes for something they didn’t read should be ashamed. How can anyone defend that? How can they tell us that we “need” everything that is in the bill when they don’t know what is in the bill themselves?
So far the news coverage of this bill falls into one of two categories. The Fox News “It’s all a sham” view and the “this is the solution” view on the other networks. Both of these views are short sighted. The whole bill isn’t bad, that’s just crazy. On the other hand, to call this particular bill the solution is also wrong. If we are to believe our Commander in Chief then a stimulus package is necessary and it is necessary now. Wouldn’t it be fair then to ask that Congress deliver a bill that is actually stimulus package without so much pork and so many earmarks? Would it be too much to ask for a streamlined bill that dealt with only what is essential now? Is now the time to push through spending that is pure political payback? I know that this is how things have always been done in Congress, but does that make it right? Does that mean we should ignore the huge price tag as they wrap up crap and tell us we “need” it now or we might never make it to the other side?
If we all went through this package item by item and find which projects are wasteful and which are not. Bottom line though, I have yet to speak to anyone, even my super pro-Obama friends who can say that this bill isn’t packed with pork. I am all for debating these things at the appropriate time, but I haven’t found anyone who can deny that Pelosi and Reid are ramming through every pet project they can find into something that people are afraid not to pass. The best I get from Obama supporters is “what can he do?” Huh? There is a LOT he can do and a lot he should do if he wants to lead.
What should he do? He should meet with the leaders of his own party and let them know that we need a stimulus package that actually offers what he asked for (50/50 tax cuts/spending.) He can sit down with these leaders and ask that they remove their pork projects and non-stimulus items. He can offer his support for these pet issues at a later date in exchange for a stream lined stimulus package that will actually move us forward. If these leaders (and their Republican counterparts) refuse to remove the items then the new President can head straight to the people. He can make a prime time speech where he outlines his plan and names names. Whoever put in 50 million for the NEA can have his or her name attached to it and then explain to the voters why we need to spend that kind of money right now on the NEA. Whoever doubled the National Parks budget from 2 to 4 billion can explain why we need to do this now. (And at the same time explain why his SON is the lobbyist for the Parks Union.) Whoever tossed 8 billion dollars at the high speed train between LA and Vegas can explain to voters losing their homes why an impractical project that is unsafe and won’t be used is needed to stimulate the economy. This sort of direct pressure would force Congress to give the President what he asked for and what he PROMISED us during the campaign.
If he refuses to this he is either admitting that he is too weak to stand up his own party or is passively agreeing to nearly half a trillion dollars in non-stimulus related pork. If he does this then he is just as corrupt and dishonest as the pigs in Congress with their snout at the trough selling us fear and delivering unacceptable debt.
OK now for the bullet points. Some good, some bad.
-The plan supposedly offers 800 tax credit for families. That sounds good. Can’t find the details though. Which families? All of us? Is this a credit on top of the middle class tax cuts Bush passed? Why won’t Obama promise to keep those tax cuts for families making less than 100K?
– Some experts are saying that the average person will get tax relief in this plan. I’ve seen the number $13 a week thrown out there. That doesn’t sound like much relief to me, but at least it’s something and I’m not going complain.
Now for some stuff that isn’t so good.
-8 billion for high speed rail? Great, a train from LA to Vegas that is a prime terrorist target (Imagine defending that track) that will cost passengers twice as much as a flight and will cost us 8 billion. Who thought this was a good idea?
-50 million to NAE? The time to debate the NAE is not now. I support the arts, but 50 million will do what to stimulate the economy?
-The current package rewards the states where the welfare rolls grow. This is designed of course to undo the welfare reforms made during the Clinton Administration.
-What will this cost us in long run? Well one study says that those making under 30K will only pay about 2,500 over a few years while those of us in the 75-100K (As a family) will pay about 14,000 bucks. I’m sorry, what happened to the “no tax increases” for those making under 250K?
-Job Creation is needed, but this bill (about to be a law) will cost 350,000 in borrowed money PER JOB created. That’s more than seven times what most of these jobs are going to pay. Couldn’t a small business do better than that? Can we really afford to borrow 350K from China and the Middle East per job?
-Remember this, the interest in the debt is already 500 billion and is the 4th largest budget item. Piling more debt on just increases this number and increases the deficit. We keep digging a bigger hole with no plan to ever fill it.
In the end, President Obama must lead and he must lead now. He seems to be buckling under pressure and is signing us up for something that the failed leaders in Congress are shoving down our throats. This is not “change” and it may leave us with less “hope” than we had before this mess. He promised us hope and change we could believe in and did so while promising not to raise taxes on the middle class. I want to believe him.
