Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Pelosi-Obama Stimulus Plan

Updated March 6, 2009.

This bill showcases the chronic corruption of Congress. It should be called the Obama-Congressional Self-Stimulus Plan. It is full of projects that Democrats have wanted to do for a long time. It is full of wasteful spending paybacks to groups that helped get them elected. They are taking advantage of the American people by using an economic crisis to push through their own agenda instead of a true stimulus package. Like so many things government does, this bill rewards irresponsibility.

The health care provisions slipped into the stimulus plan without discussions are one more of many reasons to contact your congress person to stop this stimulus bill. It is tragic that the UK is trying to figure out how to privatize their health care system because of the poor quality of treatment, long waiting lists (people die while waiting) and incredible cost of service while the clueless in Washington D.C. try to emulate the Brits’ and others' failed health care systems.

The bill also rolls back the highly successful welfare reforms of the ‘90s. It is tragic that congress and the president would want to undo such successful reforms, that so many would want to take jobs away from people and make them dependent on government.

This stimulus bill will likely prolong the recession, hopefully not make it worse and we will probably never recover from all the government expansion. The inflation it will cause will probably feel worse than the actual recession. There will be no way to close the “flood gates” and turn off the “fire-hose”. Even worse, an “accelerant” is being used to put out the “fire” instead of water or sand.

It is dishonest to tell us that there is a consensus among economists in support of this plan.

Even economists that believe the theory of some sort of government spending stimulus don’t support this bill anymore because they believe stimulus has to take effect right away. They recognize the stimulus in this bill won’t hit until 2 to 4 years from now and they believe the recession will be over by then. Even worse, they believe most of the spending in this bill is not even "stimulus". The Congressional Budget Office says it will make things worse in the long run.

This bill does not meet the criteria of making 3 to 4 million jobs and there is no way to quantify saving jobs.

You can argue for some type of make work stimulus but you are dishonest if you argue that this bill is stimulus. This bill contains only a small percentage of stimuli that will actually hit right away, the other parts of the bill will not put money in for several years and most is just wasteful spending that will just take money and jobs from the private sector. The stimulus needs to hit right away to be effective. This bill creates some temporary work not long term jobs.

In the 90’s Japan had a recession and their solution was massive government spending that quadrupled their national debt. The recession got worse, so they spent more. The more they spent the worse it got. They are still recovering and now they want to try the same thing here.

The President gives a false choice to the American people. He says the choice is either those that want to do nothing or his spending plan. That is not being honest with the American people. Everyone in Congress seems to believe something should be done, tax cuts and spending solutions with varying levels of agreement.

If you look at the final bill, it is almost all spending with even less tax credits than before. It is a partisan bill. If you look at some of the republican’s alternate bills, they are actually bi-partisan, more of a compromise. These plans would create more jobs for less money than the Obama-Pelosi bill. They have more balance between tax cuts and spending. They include government spending that is more immediate and real tax cuts that stimulate quickly, but democrats and the President would have none of it. Spending offset by wasteful spending cuts elsewhere would be even better. Instead, Mr. Obama and Congressional democrats cling to failed ideology. They only listen to economists that support their agenda. They pretend to be bi-partisan by talking about working together with republicans but they shut them out of the process and then turn around and accuse republicans of being partisans when they don’t go along with their bill. The President talks about the need for bi-partisanship but in the same speech he says if they come and bring the same failed policies from the past 8 years don’t bother and they’ve lost credibility because they spent too much money. So he is saying I’ll work with you but only if you support my ideas and don’t bring any other ideas to the table. He says he will work with others as long as they go along with his views. He is shutting the bi-partisan process down before it even begins. When republicans were invited to speak and discuss the stimulus plan with Mr. Obama and democrats, they were reminded that “I won” and “we won”. How is that bi-partisanship? They are playing political games. Everyone in congress was re-elected by the people so you could say they all won.

Trying to woo or bully the opposition to vote for your bill is not bi-partisan. Bi-partisanship is working together to come up with a solution that benefits the American people. Come to think of it, why are democrats even making a big deal about getting republicans to vote for the bill? Why are they pretending to be bi-partisan? They have enough votes to pass this bill. They don’t need their votes. Well, they only need two of their votes in the senate. Those are easy votes. Maybe they know this bill will prolong the recession and they want to be able to share the blame or blame republicans when it fails.

Mr. Obama complains of the deficit he inherited from the previous Administration while at the same time he is increasing the deficit even more than the previous Administration ever did. He has even less credibility than the previous Administration because he is not only doing the same thing but even more of it. Mr. Obama was a member of Congress and democrats did have control of the house for the last 2 years so he inherited the deficit from himself as well.

There is a better way and they refuse to see it. Their mind is set and they refuse to see the better way to proceed forward. Their solution to everything is always spending. They ignore history and try it time and time again. It is time we stop trying the failed policies of the past and do something that works. The out of control spending is one of the reasons we are in this problem.

It is a good idea to keep ideology away, to keep an open mind when studying these problems. To keep from being blinded by ideology it is best to have an understanding of economics and social global systems while studying history and current events.

Nothing is ever too urgent to rush into doing something just for the sake of doing something, something that will make a crisis worse. In fact, the problem and effects of solutions are urgent enough to get it right. This is being rushed through way too fast. Congress does not even have time to read the bill before their final vote, meanwhile lobbyists have received copies of it before Congress. Main stream media has not brought the contents of the bill to the American people. Instead they shut down any discussion and opposition while they support and tell us it does not matter what is in it because President Obama says we need it. Main stream media is now working with the corruption in government against the people of America. The era of transparency is over. Ironic since one of Obama’s campaign promises was to bring back transparency. One of his promises was to post any legislative bill online for 48 hours for all Americans to see before it is voted on.

It is also about time our President reassures the American people, that he instills hope for the future of America that we will overcome this crisis. This would go a long way in restoring consumer confidence and thereby help in the recovery of the economy.

The voting record on this stimulus bill can be used as a litmus test. Perhaps the republicans have found their way again by not voting for this bill, all except three. The democrats have not, except maybe the seven who voted no. Wishful thinking perhaps?

History shows that spending is usually tried and it never works. Tax and spending cuts always work. This is the quickest stimulus.

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Freedom Is Still the Winning Formula
Secretly Ending Welfare Reform
Capital On Strike
The Obama Economy
Propping Up Least-Productive 10% Is A Recipe For Economic Decline
Entrepreneurs Can Lead Us Out of the Crisis
A Short History of the National Debt
Obama Warned Over 'Welfare' Spendathon'
Federal Obligations Exceed World GDP
Congress Gets Punitive on Executive Pay
1,073 Pages
Congressional Offices Don't Have the Stimulus Bill, Lobbyists Do
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan
The Unstimulating Stimulus Bill
Fiscal Reality Central-There Is No Consensus Among Economists
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Tooth Fairy can't sweeten stimulus plan
Economic Freedom Is Still the Best Policy
Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'
McCain's Vote Should Trouble Obama
Meet the New Stimulus, Same as the Old Stimulus
The Real Stimulus Burden
Exactly How Does Stimulus Work?
Obama's Enablers in Chief
Reaganomics vs. Obamanomics
Harvard Economist Robert Barro on Stimulus Bill
Harvard Economist Robert Barro on Tax Cut Stimulus
Barack Obama-san
What Other Financial Crises Tell Us
Pelosi's Indefensible Bill
50 De-Stimulating Facts
CBO: Obama stimulus harmful over long haul
The Missing Obama Tax Cut

Welfare Spendathon: House Stimulus Bill Will Cost Taxpayers $787 Billion in New Welfare Spending

The Stimulus Tragedy
$3 Trillion Gov't Overdose Must Be Stopped
There's No Stimulus Free Lunch
How Government Created the Financial Crisis
A Tale Of Two Indicators - Jobs and Stocks
How About a Payroll Tax Stimulus?
An $800 Billion Mistake
The Return of Welfare As We Knew It
What Is Congress Stimulating?
The Stimulus Package Is More Debt We Don't Need

Why Tax Rate Reductions Are More Stimulative Than Rebates: Lessons from 2001 and 2003

There's No Pain-Free Cure for Recession
Tom Daschle's Washington
The Entitlement Stimulus
A 40-Year Wish List
$646,214 Per Government Job
A $545 Billion Private Stimulus Plan
An 8.3% Deficit Is Plenty of Stimulus
Government Spending Is No Free Lunch
Let's Stimulate Private Risk Taking
Pelosi Turns Back the Clock on House Reform
The Deficit Spending Blowout
The Krugman Recipe for Depression
Why Spending Stimulus Plans Fail