Not a single Republican voted for the stimulus bill that passed in the House of Representatives today. The GOP Reps were joined by 11 Democrats, whom I would personally like to thank. The bill passed, (full text here), and no matter what they say, the Dems don’t give a rats ass what conservatives want. Today it was fiscal conservatism’s at-bat, and it was shut out. Over significant protest, but shut out, nonetheless.

Obama says the bill will “change” before it is implemented. There’s your change, America. This enormous piece of ham will permanently, exponentially increase government…and special interests get a boatload of money. We’ll see how much the totals for special interests “change” in the Senate, and in which direction, but as of today here’s some of what we will be throwing printed money at:

$1 billion for the unprofitable-since-before-1968 Amtrak, $Billions for carbon-credit scams, $25 million for new ATV trails; $400 million for the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global warming research; $335 million for the Centers for Disease Control to combat sexually-transmitted diseases; and $650 million coupons to subsidize TV viewers for digital television conversion.

So what about the 4 million jobs this sucker is supposed to create? Obama says we’re going to build our way out of this mess, but of the $819 billion package, only $30 billion of it has been set aside for infrastructure spending. Obama’s mouthpiece, Press Secretary Gibbs, would actually go on the record about this: “I think that you have a hard economic argument to make that paving a road, or fixing a bridge, or building a wind turbine, or laying a power grid doesn’t create jobs.” Aaa, yeah.

The “big concessions” in the bill to the GOP were taking out the “contraception stimulus” and the “National Mall Beautification stimulus”. No major jobs not created there.

Besides, money for infrastructure can face delays. Fox News gives an example: a proposal to spend $2.9 billion for new military hospitals says the money couldn’t be spent for years, unless Congress sets aside obstacles of its own creation. And the chance of that happening is so maddeningly against the odds, for Congress can spend like lighting, and government never gets smaller.

And throwing money at problems, no matter how pressing, does have a downside. The Congressional Budget Office says borrowing $820 billion will cost $347 billion more in interest, which of course pushes the total cost of the stimulus package to more than $1 trillion. Insanity doesn’t even approach what we are seeing.

The GOP needs to continue to hang tight, and convince other Dems in the Senate to get out the axes, not the scalpels. House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi and other House leaders are gloating tonight. Democrats and President Obama have put down their markers on this one, and they’re going for broke. If their ill-advised, hastily considered, massive move in the wrong direction blows up, the GOP and rational Democrats will at least have the high-ground. They have nothing to lose by standing solidly against this foolery.

Still, just being right won’t help if economic and monetary history are any teachers. Conservatives must stand in refusal. Transparency at Recovery.gov? We are watching, Barry.

Share this Right Soup with others:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to Right Soup by Email, RSS, or Twitter

Related Posts on Right Soup: Most Recent Posts on Right Soup: