Using Crisis To Advantage, House Democrats Pass Stimulus
by Big Dog on Jan 29, 2009 at 05:48 Political
Rahm Emanuel said that they should never let a crisis go to waste. He said that they should use a crisis to pass legislation that they would never be able to pass otherwise. Thus we get statements telling us of the dire consequences if we fail to act.
- “We don’t have a moment to spare,” Obama declared at the White House as congressional allies hastened to do his bidding in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
- “Another week that we delay is another 100,000 or more people unemployed. I don’t think we want that on our consciences,” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the leading architects of the legislation.
The first thing I will mention is that most Americans only want 535 people to lose their jobs next week and those people are in Congress. Secondly, if we are going to lose 100,000 jobs a week we are going to do so for a long time even if this passes and is signed into law tonight. The bill contains very few things that will stimulate the economy and create jobs.
The jobs it will create are jobs working for the government rebuilding infrastructure and those projects will not start for months and maybe a year or more down the road because it takes time to draw up plans, get approvals and put things in place. It might take longer because the Obama administration has been advised not to hire skilled or white workers for the projects. Unskilled minorities are best, according to Robert Reich.
The bill includes great amounts of money for things that will NOT stimulate the economy. The bill contains money for contraception, sexually transmitted disease prevention, voter fraud organizations (ACORN), a mob museum and a number of other items. These things will not stimulate the economy and they will not provide enough jobs (if any) to change the unemployment rate. Other than those involved in building a mobster museum, I can’t think of anything on this list that would create a job. I would love for my liberal commenters to explain these things and tell me how they help the economy.
Please don’t tell me they stop births or improve health or other nonsense because none of that has anything to do with the economy.
It was a foregone conclusion that the bill would pass in the House. The Democrats have a large enough majority that they can pass anything they want on a strictly party line vote. Obama wanted Republicans on board so that if (in his mind, when in mine) it fails he can say it was a bipartisan effort and that they all hold some of the responsibility. As he stated in his meeting, he won’t get reelected if things go badly.
Every Republican except one voted no. There was one Republican who did not vote. Eleven Democrats voted no with the balance voting for it. The final tally was 244-188.
The real battle will be in the Senate. The Republicans can filibuster this and keep it from passing.
Of course, there are a number of concerns with the RINOs who might vote with the Democrats. I am hoping Gillibrand, the new Democrat from New York, continues her opposition to a bailout but she is 99th in seniority and might be forced (ahem, coerced) to go along. Time will tell.
It is time for people to call their Republican Senators and tell them to vote no and to filibuster it to death. They need to be warned that if they vote for it they will be targeted in the next election. They only understand their political careers so that is what they need to see as a consequence of voting for it. This is true of Blue Dog Democrats as well. They will be vulnerable in the next election and their vote could make the difference in where they work in 2011.
This “stimulus” plan will not work. It contains a ton of pork that has nothing to do with the economy and it will saddle us with even more debt. This debt will come from the party that criticized the debt under George Bush which will seem like a drop of water in the ocean compared to this mess. This debt will also be passed on to our children, our grandchildren and to generations of people who are not even born yet.
One warning. Don’t listen to those who say that it will take a few years or that estimates about how money will be spent are incorrect. The reality is that the politicians know it will take quite some time for the economy to recover (it will recover with or without the stimulus) and they want to prepare people now so they do not get shelled in the 2010 midterm elections.
If Senate Republicans follow the House’s lead then at least the Democrats can’t claim it was a bipartisan effort when campaigning for your votes.
To be fair though, if it passes and is a success (by my standards, not a politician’s) then I will give them credit. Of course, I know it will not be successful. History has shown us as much.
Walter E. Williams has an excellent article out that concludes with this:
In stimulus package language, if Congress taxes to hand out money, one person is stimulated at the expense of another, who pays the tax, who is unstimulated. A visual representation of the stimulus package is: Imagine you see a person at work taking buckets of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping them into the shallow end in an attempt to make it deeper. You would deem him stupid. That scenario is equivalent to what Congress and the new president proposes for the economy. A far more important measure that Congress can take toward a healthy economy is to ensure that the 2003 tax cuts don’t expire in 2010 as scheduled. If not, there are 15 separate taxes scheduled to rise in 2010, costing Americans $200 billion a year in increased taxes. In the face of a recession, we don’t need that. [emphasis mine]
The article explains the situation and tells why the “stimulus” will not work. Please take the time to read it.
Then call your Senators…
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Tags: bailout, Congress, economy, Obama, stimulus