There is no doubt: Democrats are a party that has two ideas: borrow and spend. The only vigorous internal debate on the left revolves around two questions: how much and how much more? Even as the first craters of trillion-dollar stimulus, debt-ridden oaths are committing another great act of generational theft to create the illusion of economic recovery.
Call it Spendulus Spawn. The Return of the Porkulus Beast. Shitty sandwich repeat. White House economic adviser Laura D’Andrea Tyson told an international economic conference: “We should plan for a second round of stimulus on a contingency basis.” Team Obama’s madman, Robert Gibbs, says the president “isn’t ruling anything out, but at the same time he’s not prejudged anything.” Despite the inconvenient fact that less than 10 percent of the initial stimulus package has been spent (or spent improperly), Democrats in Congress remain “open” to the idea of digging a deeper fiscal hole for their children and grandchildren.
Porkulus One was a massive payoff to special interest groups and political constituencies (and dead people!) masquerading as a job generator. A General Accounting Office analysis found this week that stimulus dollars allocated to states and localities are not being spent on what they should be spent on. States set their own spending criteria. The most economically vulnerable parts of the country are experiencing shortages. School and transportation officials utilize this money to preserve their own jobs rather than “stimulate” others. And the assessments of the stimulating effect of the package are a joke. As House Republicans noted: “The Administration has essentially ‘rigged the game’ of reporting the tangible effects of its stimulus program by creating an unmeasurable metric – ‘jobs created or saved’ – that no one can disprove.”
Exasperated by mounting evidence of stimulus failure, Vice President Joe Biden lamented at Thursday’s spending event: “This isn’t about swimming pools, Frisbee parks and polar bear exhibits. This is about things that have not only passed the employment test, but passed the smell test. … All this talk about how we’re going to waste all this money is a dog that hasn’t barked yet and won’t bark on my watch. But last month, Sen. Tom Coburn unveiled 100 stinking stimulus projects worth $5.5 billion, including $3.4 million for a Florida wildlife “eco-crossing” designed to safely pass animals under busy roadways; nearly $10 million to renovate a disused train station; and a $2 million “weatherization” contract awarded to a Nevada nonprofit recently fired for doing the same type of work.
After failing to recognize the inevitable and inexorable political forces that turned the stimulus into the mother of all Beltway antics, the media is now playing catch-up:
This week, USA Today reported that “counties that supported Obama last year raised twice as much money per person from the administration’s proposed $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain.”
This week, ABC News reported that the White House-run Recovery.gov website, which tracks failed stimulus checks, will receive an additional $18 million infusion of taxpayer money to support the “redesign.” David Freddoso of The Washington Examiner points out that the contract was awarded to a Maryland company whose donors gave $19,000 to Maryland House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
This week, the Washington Times reported that “as much as $16.1 million in stimulus money will save San Francisco Bay Area habitats, including the endangered salt marsh mouse” in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s backyard.
And despite the initial focus on basic infrastructure needs, Land Line magazine reported this week that “even with federal stimulus spending putting shovels in the ground for fresh infrastructure projects, analysts predict an overall decline in infrastructure spending in 2009 by 4.3%.
The same insidious, anti-transparency, anti-funding process that marked the Porkulus beast dominates every other piece of exorbitant legislation passing through the Democrat-led Congress. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed by the House two weeks ago included a slew of bribes — including a $50 million hurricane research center for Florida Democrat Alan Grayson and a $3.00 million package of economic development sweeteners. $5 billion for Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur. Current health care takeover proposals include a key benefit for Big Labor – a golden exemption from all taxes on union members’ generous health benefits.
Obama’s friends and patrons may act like thugs. But for everyone else, the Democrats’ ideological bankruptcy comes at a disgustingly high price.
