RWNJ Conservative Views from Cincinnati

It appears that there has been an agreement reached between the House and Senate on the stimulus bill.  Yahoo has a summary article.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Cost: $780 Billion – That’s an increase of about 7.3% to the National Debt.
• Breakdown: 1/3 Tax Cuts and 2/3 Spending
• Medicaid: $90 Billion to help states with funding – something that should have been in a separate bill.
• Education: $10 Billion on program to assist low-income students – another for a separate appropriations bill.
• Infrastructure: $150 Billion – $50 Billion of that is transportation infrastructure.
• Tax Cuts: $400/year credit that applies to 95% of workers – Yes, that’s our direct share out of the $780 Billion bill.
• Timeline: Some construction projects could begin in 90 days – unfortunately, no details on how soon the jobs will end.

It is disappointing to still see a lot of items that should have been in separate appropriations bills.  Many such items could stand on their own merit instead of being tagged onto an ‘emergency stimulus bill’.  I guess it goes to show that there isn’t a bill that a politician can’t find a way to stick a rider to.

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Another interesting poll from Rasmussen:

67% trust their judgment more than the average member of Congress. Even more surprising 44% think a group of people randomly selected from the phone book could address the nation’s problems better than Congress! Only 37% disagree with them. This does not bode well for the Democrats so early into holding majorities in the House, Senate, and Presidency.

It is clear that the stimulus package is starting to take a toll on the Democrats.  Public support is falling not only for the package, but for the party that is pushing it.  The “bold and swift action” that Obama is pressing for could end up expensive if an equally swift economic reaction does not result from its passing.

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Rasmussen released a poll showing that only 20% want the stimulus plan passed as it stands today.  62% actually believe that more tax cuts should be added to the plan and the spending should be cut.  Only 14% believe that there should be more spending in the plan and less tax cuts.

If ever there was a clear message that the public believes Conservatism is the answer to the economy, this is it!

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The Washington Post has a letter from Arlen Specter (R-PA) explaining why he supported the stimulus package.  Here are a few snippets and some thoughts.

I am supporting the economic stimulus package for one simple reason: The country cannot afford not to take action.

Wrong, Senator.  You forgot one important word in that statement.  The country cannot afford to take inappropriate action.  As I’ve already posted, the CBO believes that this bill will cause more harm to the economy in the long run than no action at all.  Unfortunately, you have chosen not to take heed of their warning.

The unemployment figures announced Friday, the latest earnings reports and the continuing crisis in banking make it clear that failure to act will leave the United States facing a far deeper crisis in three or six months. By then the cost of action will be much greater — or it may be too late.

While I agree that some action may be beneficial, I am not victimized enough by Obama’s fear tactics to believe that we are at a point where we must act or the country will perish.  Any action we take must be calculated and deliberate.  Unfortunately, a good majority of this bill should be dealt with in separate appropriations bills.

The legislation known as the “moderates” bill, hammered out over two days by Sens. Susan Collins, Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and myself, preserves the job-creating and tax relief goals of President Obama’s stimulus plan while cutting less-essential provisions — many of them worthy in themselves — that are better left to the regular appropriations process.

While I am happy that you took steps to mitigate some of the inappropriate content of this bill, there is much further to go.

Our $780 billion bill would save or create up to 4 million jobs, helping to offset the loss of 3.6 million jobs since December 2007. The bill cuts some $110 billion from the $890 billion Senate version, which would actually be $940 billion if floor amendments for tax credits on home and car purchases and money for the National Institutes of Health are retained.

So in the best anticipated scenario, we are looking at $195,000 of taxpayer dollars for each job created.  The majority of these jobs are temporary (for the duration of whatever project they are working on).  Average US salary is around $40,000/year.  Long-term benefits of this bill aren’t even being discussed, so I must assume that they are negligible.  The math isn’t making this look like a good bill, and that’s using your numbers.  The CBO estimates say it could be as little as 1.3 million jobs created, putting the per job cost of this bill at $600,000.  Now the math is just sickening.

“In politics,” John Kennedy used to say, “nobody gets everything, nobody gets nothing and everybody gets something.” My colleagues and I have tried to balance the concerns of both left and right with the need to act quickly for the sake of our country. The moderates’ compromise, which faces a cloture vote today, is the only bill with a reasonable chance of passage in the Senate.

I appreciate, understand, and even agree that politics is often about compromise.  I also believe that there comes a time to stand in defense of your country and do what you can to prevent making things worse.  This bill will raise our national debt by nearly 10%, increase government dependence, and quite possibly make our currently bad economic situation even worse.  How is this compromise?

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The NY Daily News had a great opinion article summing up a lot of what I’ve noticed in Obama’s job performance early in his term.

Obama has clearly lost the calm and bi-partisan aura he worked so hard to sell during the elections.  He has seemed testy and angry on television, and even resorted to fear tactics that liberals disliked in Bush.  The “I won” comment came across as childish.  This is definitely not the proud and prestigious man that was portrayed during the election.

Obama has also valued speed over quality.  His vetting process seemed sloppy as evidenced by the tax issues his appointees faced (such as Geitnher and Biden).  Now he looks to spend close to $1 Trillion as quickly as possible, showing great impatience if anyone questions any items on the stimulus package.  With this much taxpayer money at stake, you’d think the responsible action would be to look at everything with a fine tooth comb.  Instead, Obama shows the opposite tact.

In time, the stimulus package could become Obama’s Iraq war.  If CBO’s warnings of the package being worse than doing nothing are accurate, Obama could be digging himself a huge hole in only the first month of his term.

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Posted under Economy