So are we all ready for the greatest expansion of power that the federal government has ever seen? Thomas Jefferson must be rolling in his grave (although Hamilton must be smiling). I've always found the best way to get out of financial trouble is to spend more money you don't have to go deeper into debt you're already in. It only took Obama a few weeks to spend more money than the Bush administration spent in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Not to mention that even illegal immigrants can receive up to $1000 in stimulus money. Contained within the 1588 page bill itself (how many people do you think actually read it? attempt it at http://readthestimulus.org/) is a stipulation that people with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number are eligible for up to $1000 (per couple, $500 individual; see http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D960U4HG0&show_article=1) in government handout money (the Democrats specialty). TIN's are different than SSN numbers. To obtain one, all you need to do is return a completed form to the IRS. Yikes.
Another thought, when was the last time the government reached into the private sector of business without making more red tape, regulations, watch dogs, beauracratic loopholes, and simply a big confusing mess? This could get ugly. Maybe I'll put in a bid to build that dog park in California, after all, they allocated nearly a million bucks for it. How hard can it be to throw some sod on some flattened dirt? I mean come on, do dogs need gold slides and silver lined monkey bars to play on?
Bottom line, I think this economic stimulus is one of the worst pieces of legislation to pass our Congress and has potential to do damage to this country that could take a generation to repair. It's easy to create a huge entangling mess of government control, but it's harder and takes even longer to clean up that mess. I'm sick to even hear it referred to as an economic stimulus bill. This bill will stimulate the government more than the economy. There is no compelling economic theory to support it. Obama himself has lied blatantly on several occasions to fuel the fear in the people to garner their support for it. He claimed that there were no serious economists who oppose this plan. Boy did that bring them out of the wood work, with over 200 signing a petition of warning about the dire consequences this bill could produce. These are leading economists from the Wall Street Journal, prestigious universities on both coasts, and former economic government officials (see http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/01/28/economists-against-the-stimulus/).
Another Obama lie, the one that has me throwing my lunch at the TV every time I hear it? "We are in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes." "This is the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression." Not to mention other similar comments. FACT: The Carter economy Reagan inherited was statistically 3.4 times worse than this one by the government's own standards of measurement. Mortgage rates are around 5%, they were 16% in 1980. Unemployment is still well below 10%, while Carter's economy produced unemployment that reached nearly 11% (see http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=248) . Not to mention inflation had skyrocketed under Carter while it is till in relative control today (see http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/HistoricalInflation.aspx?dsInflation_currentPage=0). Interest rates were much worse. Bottom line: the economy of Jimmy Carter was the worst since the Great Depression to a degree that today's economy doesn't even begin to compare to. Last I checked, Barack Obama was alive during those years. Guess that means that this economic situation is NOT the worst of his lifetime, or even mine for that matter. A President who deceptively distorts history to serve his own current political situation is no President that I will ever trust. The politics of fear is his greatest weapon, as it was FDR's in passing his revolutionary and radical programs of the New Deal that even 7 years after their implementation had failed by admission of FDR's own treasury secretary.
All in all, Congress just worsened our economic situation but will conveniently blame Bush as their failure comes to light over the coming years. Funny how a key trigger in this was the housing market, where lending standards have been considerably weakened by legislation passed by the Democrats in 2006 and even Clinton in 1998, yet you never hear about that. Funny how Obama can be so narrow minded as to throw a blanket failure on all of Bush's economic policies of the past 8 years. Did he forget the crisis after 9/11? Bush helped us recover from that in an amazing fashion. Going back to Carter's economy, Reaganomics saved us from that and led to one of the longest periods of economic recovery and prosperty of the modern age. The theory behind Reagaonmics is the theory behind much of Bush's policies, more money to the people (the current plan will give us $13 a week in tax breaks). Why don't we ever hear about the success of Reagonomics? Why isn't Carter's economy ever mentioned? Reagonomics worked, and in a short period of time. After that same period of time elapses from this current bill, 75% of the money still won't even be in the economy. That dog park probably won't even be built. But a few more illegals might be watching CNN on their new plasma TVs.
I hope I'm wrong. But my continuing research does nothing to allay my fears and only serves to fuel them. Government IS the problem, not the solution. Giving them more power is not the answer. Reagan said "Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States," not the government.
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