I wish I were making this up, but no, this unfortunately is straight from our new reality.
Our urgently needed economic stimulus passed step one today, passing the House. And, in this era of post-partisanship that our new King has ushered in, he achieved exactly zero Republican votes for his plan today. As Nancy Pelosi said: “We won the election. We wrote the bill.” Yes, she should be so proud.
So, what was this urgent legislation all about? Ending the recession and creating jobs, right? How about welfare instead – over $80B for grants to people who don’t pay taxes (Obama calls these “refundable tax credits”), over $80B for Medicaid (which jobs, exactly, is that going to create?), $20B in food stamps (oh, I see start up companies rushing to get out their ‘help wanted’ signs right now), $8B in public housing assistance, about $70B for unemployment and COBRA insurance items (which, no doubt, come in handy for those without work, but again doesn’t do anything to help the private sector create jobs), etc.
As it now stands, about 10%-15% of the now $900B bill would actually go toward things that arguably might help job creation. Remember the good old days when Clinton came to office and couldn’t get his $31B stimulus passed because it was wasteful spending? Now, we are going to piss $800B down a toilet in the name of doing something urgently. Great.
And, my absolute favorite, and I don’t think I would’ve even been cynical enough to think of this: while we are giving out $20B in food stamps to people that have a hard time buying food, we are going to buy up dairy cattle for slaughter to drive up depressed milk prices. You see, that way we make a staple food product more expensive so that the indigent have an even tougher time with their food bills, but at the same time give them food stamps. Whether that makes it through the Senate, and then conference, and into law remains to be seen. But the fact that elected officials could even be debating doing that is somewhere between lunacy and criminal. Where is PETA to complain about the inhuman slaughter of cows when we need them?
2 comments:
I wish I were making this up, but no, this unfortunately is straight from our new reality.
Our urgently needed economic stimulus passed step one today, passing the House. And, in this era of post-partisanship that our new King has ushered in, he achieved exactly zero Republican votes for his plan today. As Nancy Pelosi said: “We won the election. We wrote the bill.” Yes, she should be so proud.
So, what was this urgent legislation all about? Ending the recession and creating jobs, right? How about welfare instead – over $80B for grants to people who don’t pay taxes (Obama calls these “refundable tax credits”), over $80B for Medicaid (which jobs, exactly, is that going to create?), $20B in food stamps (oh, I see start up companies rushing to get out their ‘help wanted’ signs right now), $8B in public housing assistance, about $70B for unemployment and COBRA insurance items (which, no doubt, come in handy for those without work, but again doesn’t do anything to help the private sector create jobs), etc.
As it now stands, about 10%-15% of the now $900B bill would actually go toward things that arguably might help job creation. Remember the good old days when Clinton came to office and couldn’t get his $31B stimulus passed because it was wasteful spending? Now, we are going to piss $800B down a toilet in the name of doing something urgently. Great.
And, my absolute favorite, and I don’t think I would’ve even been cynical enough to think of this: while we are giving out $20B in food stamps to people that have a hard time buying food, we are going to buy up dairy cattle for slaughter to drive up depressed milk prices. You see, that way we make a staple food product more expensive so that the indigent have an even tougher time with their food bills, but at the same time give them food stamps. Whether that makes it through the Senate, and then conference, and into law remains to be seen. But the fact that elected officials could even be debating doing that is somewhere between lunacy and criminal. Where is PETA to complain about the inhuman slaughter of cows when we need them?
FWIW - I am disappointed with the bill as well. Too many tax cuts (weak elasticity) and not nearly enough stimulus.
I'd have left out all the soft stuff - unambiguous infrastructure only. It appears that the House rolled the new pres.
Don't blame Obama for the absence of GOP - that was strategic. They have no ideas, so they are simply betting against the other side.
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