The wildly misnamed "stimulus" bill is a disaster, a combination of wasteful spending, ridiculously unnecessary pork projects, and the gross expansion of government programs. It takes the United States not merely another step towards socialism but, quite likely, over the brink where a return to fiscal responsibility, fair trade, an open workplace and democratic government will be nigh unto impossible.In addition to articles cited in last week's posts, here's a few important reads about this sad affair:
* "The Stimulus Tragedy" -- an editorial from this weekend's Wall Street Journal.
* "Will the Stimulus Bill Do Harm?" by Scott Johnson at Power Line.
* "Congressional Budget Office: Obama Stimulus Harmful Over Long Haul" by Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times.
* "Our Deadly Debt: How 'Stimulus' Prolongs Pain" by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann in the New York Post.
* And, finally, this concise criticism of the "stimulus" boondoggle from the editors of the Examiner:
There were a bunch of busy beavers in the Senate over the weekend, but, as beavers are wont to do, they just built another dam, this one an $827 billion “compromise” economic stimulus bill that mainly will choke back the U.S. economy’s ability to generate a new flood of prosperity. Everything you need to understand about the stimulus bill is found in statements by three of the most eager beavers - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan.
Reid offered this interesting observation during debate about the content of the bill, saying “the main direction is tax cuts, people are really needful of money. About 58% of it is job creating.” So if the purpose of the stimulus bill is to spark economic growth and job creation, why not get rid of the 42 percent the Senate Majority Leader admits isn’t about those two goals? The reason, of course, is that the Democratic majorities under Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are hell-bent to serve up a porkfest of unmatched magnitude for their favored special interests.
There’s another reason the Democrats won’t cut the pork and instead use the stimulus bill to cut tax rates on individuals and businesses and simplify the tax code – they don’t trust families and businesses. So observed Kerry, who said this of the stimulus bill: “If you put a tax cut into the hands of a business or family, there's no guarantee that they're going to invest that or invest it in America. They're free to go invest anywhere that they want if they choose to invest." Government knows best, right, senator?
All of which points to the basic reality of the economic stimulus bill – It’s based on the lie that more big government spending will make the economy start growing again. Even with an estimated $100 billion in cuts, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of pork barrel, bureaucratic budget fattening and special interest favors remain in the bill. The cuts are mostly cosmetic anyway because, as Levin predicted, according to AP, “some of the funds on the chopping block would be restored next week when negotiations open on a House-Senate compromise." As Newsweek’s Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas note, “the catch is that more government intrusion in the economy will almost surely limit growth (as it has in Europe, where a big welfare state has caused chronic high unemployment).” Exactly.
