Analysis: Like newly pubescent teens stumbling drunk in a cheap whorehouse with their parent’s credit cards, the US Congress is buying everything without regard to the health, protection, or the financial survival of taxpayers. The stimulus package will not stimulate and may well decimate the economy of America.
Congress first failed to regulate government housing programs (although
clearly warned) which began the current economic crisis. Then the first
stimulus package last year failed to accomplish any lasting economic
boost. Then Congress stampeded President Bush into the foolish Troubled
Assets Relief Program (TARP) now discovered to have wasted over $78
BILLION (strike two on the Constitutional responsibility of Congress
as good fiscal stewards). Next auto makers supported by corrupt unions
pandered for $17.4 billion to continue failed inefficiencies. Now, the
non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reports the stimulus bill will
harm our economy and cause our Gross Domestic Product to decrease over
the long term.
Where is the responsibility? If taxpayers must mortgage their grandchildren’s future to pay for irresponsible, inattentive or fraudulent oversight within various institutions, then public inquiries must be required. Without it, this is not change. This is a crazy left turn to policies of socialism that have failed at every time and in every country throughout history including our own.
President Obama campaigned on pure personality and glittering generalities, therefore, the only change voters approved was a different persona in office. We did not vote on this Socialist/Marxist takeover of private business – yes, I know this site warned you, but most other media did not.
Author Paul Davidson has included a revealing note in his book on growing up in Oklahoma during the Great Depression. Davidson reports workers called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) the “We Piddle Around.” Government has never been efficient in such programs – see the former Soviet Union for more detail. Yes, “bricks and mortar” projects were completed – at triple the costs over ten times the time a private company could build the same.
Oklahoma Senator Dr. Tom Coburn said, “The concerns that many members of Congress have expressed about this bill are not based on the failed policies of the past but sobering facts of present and the future. As the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stated, this bill will not work. In fact, this bill will hurt our economy. A majority of Americans also do not believe this bill will work because they possess a level of common sense that does not exist in Washington.
“Congress and the president have a choice, Dr. Coburn continued. “They can pull this bill and fix it, or they can ram it through and claim victory. Republicans and the Bush administration faced, and failed, this test many times. For years, Republicans passed bloated and reckless spending bills that were harmful to the economy. Yet, even as Republicans grew the government they touted their bills as sound and fiscally responsible vehicles for job creation. Republican hypocrisy and spin met its logical conclusion with the most recent election. Democrat attempts to call failures successes won’t be any more successful. The biggest loser in this game won’t be either party, but the country.”
Common in young people new on the job, Obama has a bad case of “Executive Encephalitis” (coined here as acutely inflated inflammation of an unearned sense of self-importance). Obama failed to produce a work product. Obama’s staff could have drafted a stimulus plan, but instead Obama relied on Congress to write the details. Thus without adult supervision, Democrat members retreated to the same old failed socialist programs to grow government, push pet projects and promote idiotic ideology. Here is a clue Mr. President, you took an oath to work for all citizens not just socialists, trade unions, and welfare recipients – how about a break for people expected to pay for this largess.
Pork details so bad that if you can read the list of projects without getting mad as hell at the waste – you need to return to high school for a basic economics class. Sadly, we may not have the time the national media needs to get such a basic education and crawl out of the goose-stepping-tank in time.
Politico reports Sen. John McCain took his most direct shot at President Barack Obama since the presidential campaign on last Friday morning, using a Senate floor speech to criticize the president for mocking Republican concerns over the massive economic package.
“The whole point, Mr. President, is to enact tax cuts and spending measures that truly stimulate the economy,” McCain said. “There are billions and tens of billions of dollars in this bill which will have no effect within three, four, five or more years, or ever. [pause] Or ever.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Politico that he believed Obama was "AWOL" on bipartisan negotiations on the stimulus, further showing the discontent on the GOP side of the aisle.
“$50 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts — all of us are for the arts,” McCain said. “Tell me how that creates any significant number of jobs? After-school snack program is probably a good idea. Do we really want to spend $726 million on it?”
With Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) recovering from brain cancer and the Minnesota Senate race still unresolved, Democrats have 57 seats and need to keep their caucus unified while pulling support from three GOP senators to pass the bill.
McCain rejected that strategy and said Democrats should not call the measure “bipartisan” if only a handful of Republicans support it. “You can call it an agreement, but you cannot call it a bipartisan agreement,” McCain said.
This stampede to do anything and everything throwing money with no detailed investigation, little justification and no foreseeable end while being entertained with glittering generalities of no substance without regard for the long term health of a nation has happened before in history.
“Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circus,” wrote Roman poet Juvenal of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. Wikipedia reports, "
Bread and circuses" (or Bread and games) (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for handouts and petty amusements that politicians use to gain popular support, instead of gaining it through sound policy. The phrase is invoked not only to criticize politicians, but also to criticize their supporters for giving up their civic duty.
More than being criticized, future generations will damn us if we allow this to happen. Assuming of course we and they survive the barbarians at the gates.
About the author:
David Arnett began his career in professional journalism in 1985 and has published Tulsa Today since 1996 – before Al Gore invented the Internet. He has won two national awards as a First Amendment Publisher. Arnett is an idea guy, a Constitutional Republican, a Conservative Media Critic and a proud pain in the political derriere of the disingenuous. This analysis may be reproduced without charge with proper attribution and links to the original source. Arnett is available for interview by recognized media.