Heavy Reading
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Fancy some light reading?
The largest spending bill to be passed by Congress has topped out at 1,071 pages and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) remarked: “No, I don’t think anyone will have the chance to [read the entire bill].” How many times over the previous eight years have we heard from Pelosi and Reid how “irresponsible” the former administration of George W. Bush was? We are talking about spending $787 billion of U.S. taxpayer monies… wouldn’t it be a good idea for our humble representatives to have read everything? But the sheer size of the bill is the entire point… 1,071 pages… it is too large for anyone or any organization to comb through it for details. In fact, the Democrats had promised to allow for a 48 review of the bill:
“The American people have a right to know what’s in this bill,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind) told HUMAN EVENTS after the press conference. “Every member of Congress — Republicans and Democrats — voted to post this bill on the internet for 48 hours, 48 hours ago. We’ll see if the Democrats keep their word.”
Actually — as of 5:15 pm, the Democrats had broken their word. The stimulus bill — which we still haven’t seen — will be released late tonight and will be brought up on the House floor at 9 am tomorrow.
The sheer size of this bill should indicate to everybody that it was not written since President Obama became president… obviously huge chunks of this bill were boilerplate text written by lobbyists, Democratic strategists… anybody with an interest in getting money to support their causes. The fact that this country is in the throes of a financial crisis merely provides a convenient method for furthering the side of the party that is in charge at the moment.
We know for a fact that there is a lot of waste in this bill… things that have nothing to do with “stimulating” the economy such as $8 billion for a high speed rail between Disneyland in California and Las Vegas in Nevada (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s state ) or $200 million for WWII Filipino veterens (most of whom don’t live in the U.S.) or $30 million for the salt marsh harvest mouse which is lucky enough to live in the Bay Area… Nancy Pelosi’s backyard? The Republicans did manage to kill $200 million to re-sod the National Mall but that’s just a drop in a $787 billion budget.
Furthermore, what about the “stimulus” part of the bill… the part about helping the middle class? Well, starting in the Spring they will get an extra $13.00 per paycheck (decreasing to $8.00 per paycheck in 2010)! What will the economy do with all of this extra spending? Or how about 1/3 of 1% of the entire bill devoted to small business tax relief even though small businesses employ the greatest percentage of Americans?
What is worst is that not only is this bill expensive, not only will it cause us to borrow even more money from countries like China and Japan, but it will add about $36,000.00 onto every American which will be passed down to future generations. The $787 billion we are spending now will wind up costing us $2.53 trillion over the next 10 years when debt service and extension of the bill’s 20 most popular programs are factored in (when was the last time Washington killed a popular program?).
To be fair, were the Republicans in charge instead of the Democrats you’d see the same kind of gloom and doom talk that the Obama Administration is using to put pressure on lawmakers to pass this bill. But, in the end, two wrongs don’t make a right and President Obama’s pledge to work for “hope and change” seem hollow.
I think it is common sense that voting for a bill you haven’t read is a criminal activity and it is even worse that the Democrats, who howled at George W. Bush, are not treating their own party with the same tone.
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9:27 PM
Good points throughout and I particularly enjoy the sudden hypocrisy of the left on this one. I suppose not reading this thing and passing it into law is OK so long as your party is the one in charge. Otherwise, well such an action would be just plain irresponsible.
And you are very correct in pointing out that we’d see the same kind of nonsense. These days the only difference between Democrats and Republicans appear to be which of their little pet groups they’ll throw our money at. I miss conservatives — you know, those folks who swore that fiscal responsibility, small government, personal liberties, etc. were good ideas.
We’re going to regret this stimulus package, to be sure. Hell, even the Democrats are admitting parts of it will fail as they’ve been claiming that the bill isn’t perfect, but there’s enough good stuff in there to make the majority of Americans happy. There’s a ringing endorsement, huh?
4:51 AM
Granted this is a problem about handing debt against China and Japan to future generations.
Granted!
But why the anti-Democratic rhetoric? Since when were Democrats perfect? You seem to hold Democrats up to a higher standard. We’re all in this together. One human family, as the old, not so old saying goes. My stepson plays Mario Cart with kids in Japan on WIFI. Do you think the kids worry about national debt??
Perhaps libertarians are just Republicans in drag, after all, like I once thought.
Or maybe America is just waning like a latter harvest moon. But that is a universally American thing, not a partisan thing. Maybe what Bush did *was* necessary. But so is what Obama is doing.
6:50 AM
Whenever a party, or a candidate, runs for “change” they need to be held accountable for the “change” they bring.
4:53 AM
As for Hawg’s comments, I *don’t* miss days of small government and people who pine for it!
4:55 AM
It’s a very simple thing. A big world required a big government. We are not communists. We are Democrats, in the widest possible sense of the wor(l)d. There are stark differences betwixt Leninism and our forms of Democracy.