There are very few people left in Washington who believe that the “stimulus” bill is nothing like a real stimulus bill.
People do not wonder whether a quick injection of energy into the listless economy will be effective. They know it won’t happen.
People are not debating the priority of public works proposed in the bill because very, very few public works have been proposed.
And the United States Senate fails to cement its reputation as the “greatest decision-making body in the world” because the Senate is not in session.
“More than 300 amendments were proposed, but only 20 were debated. “No hearings were held and no expert opinions were heard.” – noted the DC examiner.
“When the American people find out what this bill says, they will reject it,” said Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, but the truth is that the public has already rejected it. Public opinion polls show that support for porkapalooza is rapidly degenerating. Hence the Senate’s rush to push it through.
“[T]his trial stinks and the content of the bill sucks” – Senator Lindsey Graham – I declared bluntly in an interview for my radio show. Graham and his colleagues spoke freely against the very popular and newly elected president because the bill he is demanding is so deeply flawed that he has no choice but to oppose it. A dozen Democrats in the House rebelled when Nancy Pelosi first hijacked the stimulus idea and used it as a Trojan horse for every program and wish list denied to Democrats during the Bush years. The Bush years were not a period of fiscal discipline, but they look like models of sobriety compared to the first two weeks of the Obama administration. The Blue Dog pack escaped, but not enough to force a real change on the “real change”. That would be up to the Senate, and no doubt more than a few House Democrats who know this bill is the legal equivalent of bleeding a patient out were hoping the Senate would turn the “stimulus” into, well, stimulus.
Senate leaders are driven by politics at least as much as Nancy Pelosi, and they are driven by an even greater love of pork than usual abroad in the House, because each of the 100 (99 with the vacant seat in Minnesota) has entire states to feed. With a significantly reduced GOP caucus of 41, with moderate members in Senators Collins and Snowe of Maine, Specter of Pennsylvania and Voinovich of Ohio – some common sense and votes to reject Cloture would have to come from Senate Democrats who consider themselves moderates, like Ben Nelson from Nebraska. With a dozen Democrats running into the House and many others concerned about the bill, hope for major change rested with a handful of Democrats in the Senate, but they have yet to make a concerted effort to save the bill.
How bad is the bill? The Congressional Budget Office – run by a majority of Democrats and staffed by appointments of a majority of Democrats, but nonetheless professional economists who do not want their reputations forever tarnished – announced on Wednesday that the proposed bill would actually harm the economy by causing the Gross Domestic Product to actually shrink over the next decade.
That’s why Senate Democrats are trying to rush a vote to shut down the House – the evidence is mounting that President Obama’s first substantial bill is a huge mistake. Instead of going to 4 p.m. and explaining this to him in the privacy of the Oval Office, his colleague from Illinois, Dick Durbin – the No. 2 in the Senate – is pushing a bill that includes Allocating $2 billion for a novel zero-emissions power plant in their home state. It’s not just Durbin – all members of the majority see a once-in-a-career opportunity to cut a giant piece of bacon for the home front. Their collective conscience about what they are doing to future generations – and what they are not doing now for the economy – has simply disappeared.
The only thing that can rekindle consciences about their greater calling is the public outrage that has been growing and continues to grow.
The bill is a breeding ground for bad legislation, so obvious from so far away that voters in every state have noticed its uniquely awful features and are now watching to see who will do with it. Voting for this bill means embarking on a doomed ship, and the GOP has quite rightly defined the issue and taken a near-unanimous position against it, in one move revitalizing its brand and contrasting the imprudent spending that is in the Democrat Gene.
Yes, when the GOP had a majority, they allocated money to programs like prescription drug benefits and No Child Left Behind, but it was clear where the money was going and what it was buying. The GOP mainly spent money on the war against jihadists. By contrast, there is almost nothing in this bill for the Pentagon. A trillion for pork, a few cents for defense.
And when the last president hurriedly demanded billions, the money was poured into the banking system and it worked, although not without waste. The government, by definition, wastes money, but fiscal water has been poured on a financial fire. This bill proposes pouring them onto the sand.
Some Senate Democrats still have time to acknowledge the bill’s deep flaws. Dianne Feinstein is a sharp legislator who knows that California’s economy really needs a housing boost. Max Baucus and Jeff Bingaman are two long-time members of the Engagement Committee who must know that this bill is fiscal hemlock. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas faces an uphill re-election fight in a state that won’t soon forget she signed on to this travesty. Nebraska’s Ben Nelson has a reputation for being a earnest threat to lose. There are others too.
The economy is brittle and requires a short-term stimulus. There are many key projects that could be implemented for half a trillion dollars. The country and the Republican Party will support a real stimulus package. Thus, the Democratic President and Senate have an opportunity to deliver a timely piece of essential legislation that can serve the country while strengthening their party’s fortunes. I don’t understand how they managed to corner themselves, trying to shout over the conscious opposition and distract the focused public opinion, but it is not too overdue to save the situation, and with it the chance to assist the economy recover. towards growth.
