Will There be a Second Stimulus?

Laura Tyson, a member of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory board, thinks we should consider another stimulus, this one focusing on infrastructure projects because the Porkulus bill in February was "too small."

This is just her opinion and it is not in accord with what Biden said earlier this week when he said it was "premature to discuss crafting another stimulus because the current measures have yet to fully take effect." Obama also said it's not quite time to consider a second stimulus, but his comments usually have expiration dates. Today, Obama said this to Fox News: "I don't take anything off the table when unemployment is close to 10 percent and a lot of Americans are hurting out there," Both Obama and Biden could conceivably go along with a second stimulus bill in the near future.

As unemployment continues to climb, and it will - even Obama admits this, how long before this administration decides to go along with a second stimulus? As the 2010 elections approach and the economy is still in the tank, will that persuade Congress to go along with a second stimulus?

Derek Thompson at the Atlantic is putting his money on no second stimulus. He says this chart would work against such a proposal:


Thompson also says that with so many irons in the fire now, so to speak, that introducing major new economic legislation would be detrimental to those other projects such as health care, climate change and bank regulation. Colin Powell has already expressed concerns about Obama trying to do too much, and spend too much, at once.

Let's review some of the gems in the February stimulus package:

$300 million for hybrid and electric cars for federal employees
$650 million for abandoned mine sites
$850 million for Amtrak
$200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
$2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars
$198 million to design and furnish the DHS headquarters
$100 million for lead paint hazard reduction
$20 billion for increased food stamps
$2.1 billion for Head Start
$2.5 billion to upgrade low-income housing

The list goes on and on, but very little of this is actually stimulating the economy. Remember, this is the bill nobody read before the voted on it. Members received the bill right before midnight on Thursday and were expected to vote on it on Friday after multiple changes and additions had been made behind closed doors. Is this what we should anticipate with a second stimulus?

Eric Cantor has said that Republicans are prepared to work on a second stimulus as long as this one has tax cuts and help for small businesses. "He said that lawmakers and the White House should redirect some of the money yet to be spent in the first stimulus away from government programs and toward businesses and taxpayers." He would like to see an income tax cut for small businesses and their employees. The Hill reminds us that "the $787 billion bill passed in February steered approximately 60 percent of its funds to government programs and less than 40 percent toward tax cuts."

Even at this early stage it's clear that the stimulus isn't doing what they said it would do. Biden says "we underestimated" the state of the economy. That's reassuring. What this administration should do is work in a truly bi-partisan way to rechannel some of the money allocated in the stimulus, as Cantor suggests, and get this crazed spending under control. The February stimulus was in no way bi-partisan. It was crafted by Pelosi and company behind closed doors in the dark of night with little or no Republican input.

Rasmussen has a new poll out today which indicates that 60% of Americans are opposed to a second stimulus this year while only 27% are in favor. 2010 is coming and many in Congress, of BOTH parties, are in jeopardy of keeping their jobs. People are fed up with out of control spending in Washington and their - our - discontent will be made clear in the voting booth. More spending isn't what is needed - better spending would be a good start though. Redirect what is already allocated and quit printing more money to throw down the drain.


Related Posts:
A Flaming Bag of Poop
Piling on the Pork
Porkulus Projects
Pork in the Stimulus

A Flaming Bag of Poop

From BarackObama.com:

Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.

Remember that quote? All about how Obama is going to change the "old way of doing things" and bring "transparency to Washington"? So far I am not impressed.

Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act two days after it passed Congress. Nobody reviewed it. It was passed in the Senate on January 22, passed in the House on Jan 27 and signed on Jan. 29. It was not on the website until after it was signed.

Then the SCHIP bill which expands health coverage for low income children. He signed that one just hours after it came through Congress. No input there either.

Then comes Porkulus. He signed that one only today, four days after it was rammed through Congress. Remember, we were headed toward a "catastrophe" and this was the worst the economy had been since the Great Depression. Look out! Here comes another Great Depression if we don't pass this thing in time for Pelosi to get on her airplane to Rome!

Congress on Steroids rams this thing through in a matter of days, the legislators finally get a copy of it near midnight on Thursday and are expected to read it and be ready to vote on Friday. Nobody in Congress, much less the public, had time to read the thing, much less comment on it. And to be honest, no democrats really wanted any comment on it. Pelosi and Reid wrote the thing and that was the way it went down. Obama just outsourced it to them. This bill was crafted with NO Republican input whatsoever unless you count the only 3 RINOs who supported it. So much for input.

Oh the drama at getting the final behemoth passed -- we had to extend the normal fifteen minute final vote to HOURS so that Sherrod Brown could attend his mother's wake, fly back to Washington on a plane provided by the White House, vote, then return home for the funeral. Talk about unprecedented.

And the bill was such an "emergency"? So much so that Obama left Washington, took a holiday jaunt home to Chicago, took Michelle out to dinner, watched the All-Star game at a friend's house, went to the gym, did a couple of photo ops, all the while with this "emergency" bill on his desk for four days.

Oh, it's on the website now, but that wasn't the promise. The five-day promise was to have been BEFORE the bill gets passed, not before it gets signed. I feel played. The promise says "non-emergency" but we're to believe it's an emergency when he takes four days to sign the thing, and only then at a photo op in Denver?!

Okay, so the Stimulus is a done deal. Now what do we do? We have to realize that he never wanted our input in the first place. The whole purpose of this bill is to advance his own policy agenda and his own ambition.

I heard Obama say last week that "there are no earmarks in this bill." Are you kidding, Mr. President? The earmarks have been listed and documented ad nauseum and I won't do it again, but seriously? How can he say that with a straight face, unless of course, he hasn't read it either. Does he know about Harry Reid's train? Or Pelosi's mice? To add insult to injury, I then heard him say that if the earmarks were there all along then they aren't earmarks. It's only an earmark if it got slipped in behind closed doors at the end.

This is not "transparency," this is a shell game.

Obama wanted this bill, earmarks and all, because number one it paves the way for nationalized health care and number two, it undoes the welfare reform that Clinton signed during his administration in a bi-partisan move with Republicans. States are once again going to be rewarded for increasing their welfare rolls rather than getting people off welfare and back to work.

The bottom line is that Obama is the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the free world. He had the power to slow this thing down so that the public could look at what we're going into generational debt for. He could have allowed legislators time to read it, but he didn't. He could have told Nancy Pelosi to stuff it and actually lived up to his promise, but he didn't. He could have fostered bi-partisan support, but he didn't. The ends justify the means.

Oh yes, he talked to Republicans and got "input" but none of those recommendations were taken. That was a face saving gesture but in the end it all fell flat and we are the ones left holding the bag of poo.

Betsy McCaughey on Lou Dobbs

A Rant on the Stimulus

So much for transparency in Washington. The Dems met last night secretly, behind closed doors, were nailing down their Porkulus bill and shutting Republicans out of the process. They also had previously agreed to allow 48 hours for the public to look at and read the bill before finalizing it but it doesn't look like that is going to happen either.

I am not against a stimulus. Let me repeat that: I am NOT against a stimulus. I'm not even against a stimulus with spending in it.

How do you feel about nationalized health care? How do you feel about going to the doctor and being told that your procedure or your illness is not priority and that you can't have it right now, if ever.

How do you feel about your mother or your grandfather needing surgery and finding out that they are "too old" and just need to come to terms with the process of aging. "You can buy a wheelchair Mr. Smith - you don't get a hip replacement or that orthoscopic knee surgery."

How about you go to your EN&T guy for your allergy meds and you can't have that medication that has always worked for you because it didn't work for enough people and is now too expensive to make. You can't have it any more. It's no longer being prescribed.

That's what is coming. That is what is in this bill. I'm not crying "Chicken Little" here - it's in the bill. I've read it. You want the page number?

What about the welfare reforms Bill Clinton signed during his tenure? Those little provisions that make welfare provisional on finding work? On not being open-ended? That even set a limit on how long you can draw welfare? Gone. Gone. Now you can draw welfare forever and remain dependent on the government forever. You don't have to look for work. You don't have to worry about finding a job in two years or five or ten. Open ended. Forever. It's also in the bill. I've read it.

They're also going to pay health insurance premiums for unemployed workers and their families REGARDLESS OF THEIR INCOME OR ABILITY TO PAY! You're a bank executive that just got laid off after making $150,000 or $200,000? You have eight kids? No problem. Here's your check. The underprivileged kids have already been taken care of when we expanded the SCHIP program two weeks ago! This is more on top of that one.

I'm tired of Dems saying "well, it's not perfect, but the world isn't perfect"(Max Baucus). This bill is so far from perfect it is insane. That's why they're jamming it down our throats; not because "we're in a crisis" but because they don't want to field the angry phone calls anymore and they don't want us to know what else is in there.

I'm listening to Sen. Baucus on CSPAN right now making the case that if we don't act RIGHT NOW people are losing jobs! As we speak! Right now! Hurry! Pass this bill! Now! JOBS! "We must enact this legislation to save jobs in this country!" "We must do something!" "Other countries are watching us!"

All I have to say is that if you wanted socialism, if you wanted nationalized health care, if you wanted to give the government complete and total control of your life, you've got it with this bill.

If you want to give the government permission to engage in income redistribution, you've got it with this bill. How do you think they are going to pay for open ended welfare and health insurance premiums for unemployed workers and their dependents?

You don't even have to be an American to benefit from this stimulus. Harry Reid and company denied the amendment that would have required proof of citizenship for stimulus recipients.

So go ahead and try to defend this "stimulus" package. It is European socialism on top of payoffs for Dem. pet projects and nothing more.

Piling on the Pork

The final vote on the Porkulus bill went through today in the Senate much as the vote yesterday. It has become more and more clear today however that many of the Senators don't even know what they are voting for. It defies logic that they could have read the thing in the short amount of time that they've had it. Here's a crib sheet from Sen. Tom Coburn, via Hot Air:

• $2 billion earmark for FutureGen near zero emissions powerplant in Mattoon, IL
• $39 billion slush fund for “state fiscal stabilization” bailout
• $5.5 billion for making federal buildings “green” (including $448 million for DHS HQ)
• $200 million for workplace safety in USDA facilities
• $275 million for flood prevention
• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
• $650 million for the DTV transition coupon program
• $307 million for constructing NIST office buildings
• $1 billion for administrative costs and construction of NOAA office buildings
• $100 million for constructing U.S. Marshalls office buildings
• $300 million for constructing FBI office buildings
• $800 million for constructing Federal Prison System buildings and facilities
• $10 million to fight Mexican gunrunners
• $1.3 billion for NASA (including $450 million for “science” at NASA)
• $100 million to clean up sites used in early U.S. atomic energy program
• $10 million for urban canals
• $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars
• $1.5 billion for carbon capture projects under sec. 703 of P.L. 110-140 (though section only authorizes $1 billion for five years)
• $300 million for hybrid and electric cars for federal employees
• $198 million to design and furnish the DHS headquarters
• $255 million for “priority procurements” at Coast Guard (polar ice breaker)
• $500 million for State and local fire stations
• $180 million for construction of Bureau of Land Management facilities
• $500 million for wildland fire management
• $110 million for construction for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• $522 million for construction for the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• $650 million for abandoned mine sites
• $75 million for the Smithsonian Institution
• $1.2 billion for summer jobs for youth
• $412 million for CDC headquarters
• $500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
• $160 million for “volunteers” at the Corp. for National and Community Service
• $750 earmark for the National Computer Center in MD
• $224 million for International Boundary and Water Commission – U.S. and Mexico
• $850 million for Amtrak
• $100 million for lead paint hazard reduction

Keep in mind, Obama continues to insist that there is no pork in this bill and at the same time, Chuck Schumer seems to contend that there is pork, but that the "chattering" classes don't really care.




Speaking on FOX this morning, Arlen Specter seemed clueless about the national health care provision in the bill, and said that "we need more time to look at the bill." Seriously? So why are you supporting it?! And then Senator Tester gets up there and says he doesn't think that is even IN the bill. Proof positive that he hasn't read it. I saw it. I read it. I can send him the page number.

This afternoon Sen. Ensign proposed that the upcoming meetings to reconcile the House and Senate versions be televised. Transparency and all that. I'm all for it! Must see TV!

National Coordinator of Health Information Technology

Yesterday the Senate advanced the stimulus bill (61-36). I again assert that there is no way that they have read the entire bill or have full knowledge of what is in there. I don't just mean the ones that voted for it either; for those that voted against it, I would suggest that they at least cracked the seal on it long enough to know that there is massive unnecessary spending in the bill that is not stimulating in nature. I think the bottom line is, and what Sen. David Vitter said this morning, is that most Republicans support a bill do to something. We know that something must be done. We also would support meaningful infrastructure spending such as roads and bridges. But that is not the case with this bill. This is a bad bill.

Part of what is bad about this bill would be all the things hidden in it. Betsy McCaughey has an excellent analysis of the upcoming socialistic nature of our health care system imbedded in the bill (my words, not hers). We know that Obama believes health care records should now be electronic and this is not necessarily a bad thing except for the fact that this bill establishes the position of a National Coordinator who will now oversee and moniter your treatment in order to be sure it is cost effective. Sounds like the "Handicapper General" in Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" - that was the person who got to decide what "handicaps" you had to wear in order to make you Average and bring you down to the same level as everyone else.

McCaughey asserts that much of the health care provisioning in this bill is from Daschle. She writes:

One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

The page numbers in the above quote refer to HR1 which you can read if you go the Read the Stimulus site. It's even searchable so you can type whatever you're looking for into the search bar and read this for yourself. I don't know about you, but I don't want the federal government as an overseer to my health care. Even more frightening, what this leads to, as it has in other socialistic countries, is that the elderly are the ones who pay the highest cost, and I don't mean financially. They are the ones who would be refused care because it is not "cost-effective." As McCaughey refers to Daschle's book, she also says:

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

The fact is that Obama is insisting that this bill be passed NOW! RIGHT NOW! and he suggests a major catastrophe will occur if we don't. The push to avoid scrutiny should be what makes us all stop and INSIST on scrutiny. He sounds like a spoiled child who is afraid he won't get his way. And to suggest that this bill has been bipartisan is an out and out lie. The bill was supported by NO Republicans in the House and only 3 in the Senate - 3 liberal east coast Republicans. This is not bipartisan. This bill is a horrific and permanent mistake for our country.

Yard work, iPhones and Stimulus Debate

I spent the morning working in the yard a bit. I mowed, raked, fired up the weedeater and the blower. Also got out the old hedge clippers and cut the English ivy back on the fence before wasps and yellow jackets decide to move in. I haven't touched the flower beds yet but it's a bit early for that.

I also finally synced my iPhone to my computer, created a custom ringtone (LSU Fight Song) and learned how to send a picture on Tweetie (not hard.) So all in all, it's been a productive Saturday so far!

This afternoon I've been watching the stimulus debate in the Senate. Here's the PDF of the post-compromise version. The total on it at this point is 780, 215,025. Senator Vitter put up an amendment that would ban handouts for ACORN failed 45-51. Payback and all that.

Most of us realize that tax cuts aren't the only way to go; we know that some spending must occur, but nobody should want wasteful spending or spending that won't actually be stimulus. If you read the proposed bill as it is now, you will see LOTS of spending that does not need to occur as part of this bill.

At any rate, before the rest of my Saturday gets away from me, I am off to do exciting things like grocery shopping and helping my mom with her taxes. Tonight - MEXICAN FOOD! And MEXICAN BEER!

Porkulus Projects

Much has been written about the "Porkulus" bill (I just can't call it a "stimulus" bill) but the more I read about it the more incredulous I get. A couple of days ago I posted a link to the San Francisco Chronicle which listed some of the more extreme pork projects in the bill. This "crap sandwich" as Michelle Malkin refers to it, is still undergoing revision and alteration - for example, Nancy Pelosi was told to remove the contraception-as-stimulus portion. Other things have been scrapped and added but nothing approaching a reasonable bill is on the table at this time. The Senate will get the package next week.

The problem with the bill is that many of the things included are not "stimulus." The Pelosi-Reid Democrats have taken what COULD have been a stimulus package and tacked on many Democratic pet projects such as $2.1 billion for Head Start. This might be a worthy expenditure but it is disingenuous to consider it a stimulus for the economy. How is $150 million to remodel the Smithsonian a stimulus? I guess it provides jobs for the few contractors that get the lucky bids for the project. $600 million for new cars for government workers? The taxpayers have to fund this now? And this stimulates the economy by....??? Oh wait, didn't we already give the automakers a bailout? Or is this part of that?

$100 million to reduce lead-based paint hazards for children in low-income housing? How about the $2.4 billion for projects demonstrating carbon caputure technology? $800 million for AMTRAK?

How about stimulating the economy by increasing welfare? $20 billion for increased food stamps. There are several expenditures under that umbrella, including more money for AmeriCorps and the Low Income Energy Assistance program.

There is also more money for digital TV coupons ($650 million) and I'm still trying to figure out why it is the government's job to be sure I can watch TV.

Kimberly Strassel, writing in the Wall Street Journal, explains the stealthy moves in the Porkulus bill toward universal health care. The bill dramatically expands the number of people who will qualify for Medicaid, a program that was already struggling to stay afloat:

Under "stimulus," Medicaid is now on offer not to just poor Americans, but Americans who have lost their jobs. And not just Americans who have lost their jobs, but their spouses and their children. And not Americans who recently lost their jobs, but those who lost jobs, say, early last year. And not just Americans who already lost their jobs, but those who will lose their jobs up to 2011. The federal government is graciously footing the whole bill. The legislation also forbids states to apply income tests in most cases.

No income test? This means millionaires and bank executives that got laid off will qualify. As if the system wasn't already in trouble. It gets worse:

The "stimulus" also hijacks Cobra, a program that lets the unemployed retain access to their former company health benefits -- usually for about 18 months. The new stimulus permits any former employee over the age of 55 to keep using Cobra right up until they qualify for Medicare at age 65. And here's the kicker: Whereas employees were previously responsible for paying their health premiums while on Cobra, now the feds will pay 65%. CBO estimates? Seven million Americans will have the feds mostly pay their insurance bills in 2009.

This is just scary. Don't even get me started on the Democratic pay-back to ACORN that's embedded in there. It's criminal. Or should be.

So for the record, I'm not opposed to the "Stimulus" bill because it's the Democrats bill. I'm opposed to it because it is massive government spending on things that will NOT stimulate the economy and on things that will increase dependence on government. The House Democrats included little or none of the Republican amendments ("We won the election!") and cut out many of the tax cut recommendations the Republicans put forward.

I stand in hopes that Senate Republicans will hold the line as the House Republicans have and continue to work toward making this bill something that is good for the American people and actually stimulating for the economy.

Updated: Investors Business Daily has an insightful take on the provision that requires only American steel in the infrastructure projects.

A Stimulating Picture

Flip Pidot over at Suitably Flip has created this great graphic to illustrate the "stimulus" debacle. For the visual learners. He has a great post about it as well - check it out!

Pork in the Stimulus

At the risk of sounding repetitive, or re-blogging myself, I want to encourage you to go Read The Stimulus! No matter what side of the aisle you are on, you owe it to yourself (and your kids, and your grandkids) to know what is in this behemoth, all 1,588 pages of it. Nothing is final yet which is another reason to read up on what is working in Washington. No, I haven't made it through 1,588 pages either, but I'm dogging through parts of it.

It is bad enough that Nancy Pelosi thinks that birth control can stimulate the economy. But this bill is so filled with pork, with massive spending, with things that will NOT stimulate the economy that one has to believe that Washington is counting on the fact that the public will not read the document or contact anyone that can do anything to stop it.

I'm sick to death of bailouts. And, as I've said before, I am certainly no economist, but someone please tell me how planting grass is going to stimulate the economy? And why in the HELL should we be giving more money to ACORN, who is already under federal investigation, and other non-profit "neighborhood stabilization"entities?

Here are a few questionable items rounded up by the San Francisco Chronicle:

$44 million for repairs at the Agriculture Department headquarters in Washington.

$200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall.

$360 million for new child care centers at military bases.

$1.8 billion to repair National Park Service facilities.

$276 million to update technology at the State Department.

$500 million for the Transportation Security Administration to install bomb detectors at airports.

$600 million for General Services Administration to replace older vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles.

$2.5 billion to upgrade low-income housing.

$400 million for NASA scientists to conduct climate change research.

$426 million to construct facilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

$800 million to clean up Superfund sites.

$150 million for the Coast Guard to repair or remove bridges deemed a hazard to navigation.

$6.7 billion to renovate and improve energy efficiency at federal buildings.

$400 million to replace the Social Security Administration's 30-year-old National Computer Center.

Again, I know that this bill will morph and change as it goes through the process, but there is a LOT of change it needs to do. The problem with this thing is that so much of this spending is not going to revive the economy. It's just not. The main thing economists believe would revive the economy would be tax cuts and there are precious few of those. The Read the Stimulus site (linked above) is great and has easy and helpful links to specific portions and discussions. Take a look. It's YOUR money.