Here's What I Say About Porkulus II - Son of Sham

Democrats now say they underestimated the severity of the recession and that they need to double down on the stimulus. I think it was the Wall Street Journal that pointed out the absurdity of this claim, noting how many Democrats have since last fall been calling this the worst financial calamity to hit the US since the Great Depression.

Conservatives, including Gone2TX, have been saying since the outset that the $800B stimulus bill was a sham, containing very little true stimulus, with most of that occurring in the out years. Time and the facts on the ground have shown that we were right. Less than 10% of the stimulus has been spent, and the economy has declined far more than projected by Obama's economic team when they were selling us on the need for that enormous pork barrel spending bill. In fact, unemployment now exceeds what Obama's wiz kids said it would be WITHOUT the stimulus. So much for their credibility.

Isn't it just like the left? Whenever their policies fail it was because we just didn't implement the policy on a grand enough scale. They never consider that the policy itself might be flawed. Apparently, $787B is chump change these days, and no one can expect much to be accomplished with so little "investment." So now, like Einstein's definition of insane people, we are asked to keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

We must not acquiesce to this madness. Here's what we propose instead:

We agree that the Porkulus bill didn't work. It didn't work because it did not inject enough stimulus into the economy fast enough. That is because it is dominated by Democrat spending intitiatives that won't kick in for months and years - too late to provide a kickstart to the ecomony here and now - in 2009 . So, we are prepared to go back to the table with you and figure this out. Let's pass a bunch of new stimulus measures that immediately put more money in the hands of individuals and businesses. We can do so by declaring tax holidays (e.g. capital gains) or distributing stimulus checks. Because we are ALL very concerned about the burgeoning deficit, we will cancel out a corresponding amount of out year spending in the Porkulus bill. That way, we get the immediate stimulus we need without exceeding the original $800B price tag agreed to at the outset.

Chicago Tribune Sees Budget Hurricane on the Horizon

A budget hurricane -- chicagotribune.com: "A deluge of debt, looming on the horizon, threatens to wreak frightful damage on our economic future. But instead of taking steps to minimize the risk, we're acting as though the skies are clear and always will be.

That's the essence of a new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which has the thankless task of reminding us that our budgetary choices have consequences. The CBO says that in recent months a dismal outlook has gotten even darker as projected future spending -- particularly on entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- expands much faster than expected revenue. Federal debt held by the public peaked at 113 percent of total GDP right after World War II, when the U.S. government had to spend vast amounts to defeat Germany and Japan. Today, the debt stands at about 41 percent of GDP.

But with the government running trillion-dollar deficits and facing the Baby Boom generation beginning to retire, CBO estimates that the debt will break the previous record by 2026 and hit 200 percent of GDP by 2038."

The hurricane flags have been hoisted, but the Obama administration is still doing keg stands at the Democrats Gone Wild beach party. But it's worse than that. They are encouraging everyone to come to the shore in their Winnebagos.

The Maine Fiscal Conservatives

SteynOnline - THE GIRLYMAN GOVERNOR:

"I see the nice Maine ladies, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, were hailed for reaching across the aisle on the “stimulus” bill by William Cohen, who helpfully explained to The Washington Post that Pine Tree Staters are “liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal matters.” And nothing says “fiscally conservative” like voting for a trillion dollars of pork after you’ve stayed up three nights in a row carefully weeding out the $473.84 that shouldn’t have been in there."...

...the reality is that almost every “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” politician turns out to be fiscally liberal — in the same way that, if you mix half a pint of vanilla ice cream with half a pint of horse manure, it’s not hard to figure which taste will predominate.

I'm pretty sure the ladies signed on to the $421B budget, too, didn't they?

I better stop excerpting so much Mark Steyn or he's gonna sue me. But he's so witty. Go to http://www.steynonline.com/ anytime you need a good laugh.

If At Least This Debacle Were Teaching Us a Valuable Lesson...

But no. The expedient explanation for the political classes is that failures in the capitalist system and greed are to blame for the economic meltdown. This is a great boon for the big government types because it puts them in the driver's seat. But, of course, the collapse is the fault of the government - primarily due to reckless monetary policy (needed to paper over reckless fiscal policy), and massive government interference in the business of making mortgages.

See Stanford professor, John Taylor's analysis:


Government Intervention, Not the Lehman Collapse, Caused the Financial Crisis - WSJ.com