President George Bush and the GOP were long criticized for forcing through the Patriot Act, Iraq resolution and other major legislation without adequate time for most members to read, let only discuss, the legislation. The Democrats often folded in the face of such pressure — only later admitting that they never read intelligence reports or the bills themselves. Now, Democrats appear to be doing the same thing with economic legislation that the Republicans did with national security legislation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that she wants an almost $1 trillion stimulus package on the desk of President Obama by January 20th.
Both Democrats and Republicans are objecting for good reason. This country now routinely pass legislation with less scrutiny than a small city council budget. The power-push technique has repeatedly gotten us into trouble with things like the Patriot Act and the Iraq resolution. Let’s make the math. If the plan weighs in at a conservative $800 billion, that would be roughly time to review roughly $53 billion a day Pelosi is promising just one hearing on the whole package. I guess this is why the Senate get the title “the world’s most deliberative body.”
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Who will loan us another trillion dollars, on top of the trillions we need to refinance in 2009?
Will China do this? They are writing their own stimulus package, and may need to sell US debt securities in order to pay for it, not buy more.
Will Japan do this? They are once again attempting a repeat of the same stimulus approaches begun back in the 1990’s.
Will Saudi Arabia or other petro-states lend it when oil has fallen by 70%?
None of the above.
To make matters worse, much of this trillion will be spent with all the discretion of a crack addict desperately looking for one more hit. Very little of it will actually go for infrastructure that might have some productivity return to the public over time. This is going to be filled with pet projects for favored legislators “won” by well-connected contractors.
If self-destructing stimulus was all we needed here, why not just have Obama expand the war further into Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan? Perhaps that will be Stimulus II?
>”…on the desk of President Obama by January 20th.”
jonalon appears to have done version of this same concept. His post is apparently of the Limbaugh/O’Reilly?Hannity variety: “run-at-the- mouth first, think or read later”. Sorry, jonolan, but there’s no mention of putting this legislation in front of Bush. Bush is so far beyond even being irrelevent that he’s almost to the point of being ignobly ignored—and rightfully so.
Of course – they’re planning for the next elections. By pushing this crap through on Bush’s watch they can – if Bush vetoes it – blame him for it not passing, or if he doesn’t and it’s a failure, blame him for it since it was “on his watch.” If it passes and is successful, they’ll make sure to play up the idea that it was Obama’s plan.