Ok. hold off on the tar and feather until you've actually read the documentation yourself.
The so called "stimulus" package bothers me for a several reasons. First is the fact that the first two economy boosting programs had absolutely zero impact on making the economy better.
Second is the fact that Congress is really bad at providing good oversight when it comes to spending dollars in their own budget, much less budgets they deem for others.
Third is the fact that this package is chock full of loans and funding that have nothing to do with the economy, but are normal appropriations best deemed for the annual budget. I do wonder if they will try to stick these same funding proposals a second time when Congress does a annual budget. Wouldn't surprise me. WIC, Farm loans and grants, Forest management, Watershed management are great programs, but are NOT part of what this bill is supposed to be about. It's supposed to be about reversing years of bad decision making on the part of businesses and individuals when it came to handling credit and easing the consequences thereof, with the hopes of trying to infuse some credibility back into the marketplace.
Fourth is I have yet to hear where the money is coming from. Not one single word. Who is providing the upfront money? I know who's going to be paying it back for the next 30 years. But who is giving us all this "magical" money? If the bills proposed by either house mentions it, I don't know where it is. Of course, reading between 778 to over 1500 pages of legalese, depending on which version you are reading, can make it hard to determine who is going to be giving us the money, if it's even there.
Fifth. What guarantee do we have that this is going to work? Everything I have read says. We got to do this, but NO ONE Is saying this is a sure fire fix. In fact we hear the opposite. In short we are being told to "trust the government" when thus far their record on reversing the economy using similar methods has had opposite of intended results.
Do I think Congress and our president can enact a program to create jobs and jump start the economy? Yes I do. But will they? NOt if they use this monstrosity of a bill.
The concept of creating jobs by refitting our infrastructure such as roads, bridges, public buildings etc is a sound one.
ITs a win win proposition with minimal investment. The government provides funding to help with contracting staff and setting contracts for supplies. Business gets infusions of funds and projects to keep them viable, technology is allowed to freely develop, and support business also gets a boost. The public gets improved transportation, utilities etc.
When our then president yet elected was proposing the idea, I liked it and the possibility it entailed. Sadly that is not what I think we will be getting.
So read for yourself peoples..I am posting links to both the House and the Senate's proposed bills. Word of warning, they are both rather long.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1as2.txt.pdf
http://readthestimulus.org/
the second link has a spreadsheet at the end of the bill that makes for a quick, If you can call it that, breakdown on how the house had suggested we use this proposed funding
No comments:
Post a Comment