Obfuscating the Argument

Liberals are pleased as punch that 52% of those polled are in favor of the stimulus bill. I am rather shocked that, given the state of the economy, the number is that low. My guess would be that both those in favor and those opposed are being influenced by a degree of confusion caused by all of the partisan wrangling and “slant” being thrown at the bill by both sides.

Even Obama contributes to it. “…and people don’t get laid off. That’s stimulus.” No, actually, it’s not. It keeps unemployment from increasing above 7.6% but it doesn’t cause it to decrease, and a stimulus would cause unemployment to decrease. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want the spending that he’s referring to, I do want it, but I don’t want it deducted from the stimulus that we were promised.

Washington does this all the time. “Here’s a $100 Billion school funding bill.” Well, it’s a $100 Billion bill okay, and it has school funding in it. The school funding, however is only $50 Billion and the other half is unrelated things like building bridges to islands.

So now we have an $800 Billion stimulus bill, of which only a small portion is actually stimulus. That’s not to say that the other spending should not be spent, but it should be in another bill, not being used to reduce the stimulus that we need. I will say again, the other spending is valuable and needed; spend it by all means, but leave my damned stimulus money alone.

We should not have an $800 Billion “stimulus bill” of which half is other spending, we should have an $800 Billion Stimulus Bill (100% infrastructure spending and jobs creation) plus a $400 Billion Spending bill (food stamps, unemployment and relief for states) plus a $300 Tax Cut Bill (for the middle class). That’s a total of $1.5 Trillion invested in restoring our economy.

I can out-liberal Paul Krugman with one hand tied behind my back.