Leftists are an anathema to our former Republic.You won’t believe what’s in that stimulus bill.
“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”
So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, andDemocrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic”stimulus,” but now that Democrats have finally released the details weunderstand Rahm’s point much better. This is a political wonder thatmanages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposalof the last 40 years.
We’ve looked it over, and even we can’t quite believe it. There’s $1billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for thatgreat engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion forcarbon-capture demonstration projects. There’s even $650 million on topof the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversioncoupons.In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make”dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy.” Well, you be thejudge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill,is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There’s another $40billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and cleanwater projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.
Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimateonly $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, isfor something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus. Andeven many of these projects aren’t likely to help the economyimmediately. As Peter Orszag, the President’s new budget director, toldCongress a year ago, “even those [public works] that are ‘on the shelf’generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timelystimulus to the economy.”
Most of the rest of this project spending will go to such things asrenewable energy funding ($8 billion) or mass transit ($6 billion) thathave a low or negative return on investment. Most urban transit systemsare so badly managed that their fares cover less than half of theircosts. However, the people who operate these systems belong topublic-employee unions that are campaign contributors to . . . guesswhich party?
Here’s another lu-lu: Congress wants to spend $600 million more forthe federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles. Congress also wants tospend $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities. TheSmithsonian is targeted to receive $150 million; we love theSmithsonian, too, but this is a job creator?
Another “stimulus” secret is that some $252 billion is forincome-transfer payments — that is, not investments that arguably helpeveryone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all.There’s $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemploymentbenefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earnedincome credit for people who don’t pay income tax. While some of thatmay be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, theyaren’t job creators.