The $787 Billion Band-Aid
On February 17, President Obama put his John Hancock to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, making it the largest government spending package in the history of the world law. While it looks good on the surface, much like a band-aid does, it’s not the healing medicine America needs to get out of this economic recession. It’s intended to help kick-start the economy, but all it’s really going to do is increase the size of the Federal Government.
President Obama keeps harping on the point that 95% of households will receive a tax cut from this package. We should also see a $400 tax credit soon. But Obama also keeps talking about his plan to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term. It’s a lofty goal that has good intentions. But how does he propose to cut the deficit? By cutting federal spending and by raising our taxes. Wait a second. Isn’t this stimulus package going to cut our taxes and increase federal spending? Isn’t it also going to increase the federal deficit by a large amount? Doesn’t this seem a bit redundant? We’re going to get our taxes cut only to see them increase later to cover the deficit created by this package.
And why is this package so massive? It doesn’t have to be to get the job done. But no, Congress felt the need to load it with earmarks. It carries with it more pork than one would find at a hog-feeding lot. Included in this package is money for Hollywood producer tax breaks, money for condom distribution, money for a Frisbee park, $300 million for government cars, and $8 billion for high-speed train production. Also included is a $93,000 dollar pay raise for Congress. It figures they would get something out of this.
It’s amazing that they actually managed to shrink this bill. Both the House and the Senate passed versions that were over $800 billion. But I guess when you’re talking about that much money it doesn’t really matter what the final total is. It’s incomprehensible regardless. The final total will even be larger. With interest, it will be in the $1 trillion range.
As one could guess, there are many people who are opposed to this bill, beginning with Republican lawmakers. There were no GOP votes in the House while three moderate Republicans in the Senate voted for it. Since there is a Democratic majority in both houses though, it got passed all the same. In fact, it got pushed through so quickly to Obama’s desk that no one was really able to read the full contents of the bill before it was signed into law.
Among the others not at all excited about the bill are those on Wall Street. So far the stock market hasn’t rebounded in response to the package as many had hoped, and this is in direct correlation to the fact that those on Wall Street are still uneasy about this. I don’t know if anybody else has noticed, but the people on Capitol Hill that we have put in charge of fixing our economy are not economists. They’re politicians who are looking out for themselves. The real economists are those on Wall Street. Of course, they haven’t done a whole lot to help rescue an economy that they helped sink either. But that’s a whole different story.
Finally, Main Street America is none too pleased with this bill either. A February 17 poll conducted by WGN-TV asked Chicagoland viewers whether they thought it will help. A resounding 78% from Obama’s old stomping ground felt that it will not help.
From Main Street to Wall Street, people aren’t too pleased with what’s been happening up there on Capitol Hill. Their opinion of what’s going down on Pennsylvania Avenue hasn’t changed since Obama is still pulling in 60+% on his approval ratings. He took action when action was needed. Something had to be done to fix the mess we’re in. But I don’t think this stimulus package was the answer. It could’ve been more effective, but Obama lost it to Nancy Pelosi and her fellow congressional members. At a time when this country needs to move forward, Congress has stuck it in reverse. But, then again, if pro is the opposite of con, what’s the opposite of progress? You can figure that out.
