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What We Lost With The Passage Of The Stimulus Package

By: Pejman Yousefzadeh (Diary)  |  January 30th, 2009 at 08:52 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Here is a little list:

  1. The ability to restore fiscal discipline, given that we passed a stimulus bill in the House that spends more than did the massive New Deal boondoggles of years past.
  2. The ability to have a separate and vigorous argument over education policy, given that federal education outlays have been doubled in the stimulus bill.
  3. The ability to have a separate and vigorous argument over health care policy, given that the states are receiving $87 billion in Medicare funds, and that Medicaid and SCHIP coverage is being determined through the stimulus bill.
  4. The ability to have a separate and vigorous argument over redistribution of wealth, given that the stimulus bill engages in redistribution.
  5. The ability to crack down on the culture of earmarks.

Sources are here, here, and here. These are the “good government” policies that were sold to us during the election?

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COMMENTS

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  • Old_Crow

    We need to reframe the name.
    The bill does not stimulate the economy.
    It bails out state governments and government programs from being cut due to the shrinking economy.
    Trimming government spending, especially in states that have been reckless with the taxpayers money is a good thing and needs to be encouraged.
    A stimulus bill would focus on reducing costs for busnesses (eliminate regulations, cut corporate and business taxes, cut payroll taxes, reduce energy costs, etc).
    A stimulus bill would also provide tax cuts for individuals.

    Let’s not help Obama by calling this a stimulus bill but reframe it as a government bailout bill.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    “They” took it away from us.

    And we gave them every opportunity to involve us in the process. We offered suggestions, alternatives, and feedback; they slapped away the hands that we offered in friendship every time. And the only explanation that we were given for this is “I won.”

    Fine. They won. They own this debt bill. They’ve taken possession of it. It’s theirs. To them goes the rewards.

  • char

    Here in CA our state budget is tens of billions of dollars in the red and this is a result of a democratic legislature that has created budgets that are only balanced in boom years. Now that the economy has collapsed (unemployment in the state is just below 10%) our budget deficit is larger than the budgets of most states. The “stimulus” bill will give CA about ten billion dollars to close this budget gap. Although this seems like a good thing it is most definitely is not. Now the democrats in CA will have no desire to balance the budget because the Fed will be there to bail them out. Now the democrats in our legislature will have no motivation to consider reality when evaluating new spending because they know that they won’t have to pay the check if the economy goes bad. State bailout money in the stimulus bill is a disastrous precedent because it rewards the worst legislative behavior and irresponsible states (like mine) will invariably do the worst possible thing as a result of this.

    • Old_Crow

      Rewarding failure and bad decisions will not help this economy recover. NY need massive reductions in government spending as well as the size of state, county, and town governments. I count ten ‘special taxing districts’ on my property tax bill (School, Water, Police, Lighting, Fire, Library, County, Town, Highway, and Refuse) in addition to property taxes.

      Time to cut, cut, cut.

  • Shoebox

    Is the perfect example of not allowing a crisis to go to waste. Using the excuse of “we have to fix this,” the Dems are now able to bypass any “concern” they used to have about deficits and feed their inner leftist with unfettered intrusion into the economy and our personal lives