Would it be terribly uncharitable to suggest that Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner was better at navigating the Internal
Revenue Code than revitalizing our flagging economy? He seems to
be doing a pretty good Hank Paulson imitation.
After announcing, in relatively vague terms, his plans for
spending, oh, one, maybe two trillion dollars on our ailing
financial system, the Dow Jones Industrials market index
nose-dived, losing 381.99 points or -4.62%, the largest drop
since President Obama took the oath of office.
Either the stock market did not like what it heard, did not
have enough details or simply lost faith in the Administration's
general approach, well, to everything. A lot of the commentary
tried to attribute this drop to the lack of details, mere
details. Few linked the laying of this egg with the Senate
passage of the monster stimulus package.
You know we are in trouble when our Commander-in-Chief
starts defending out-of-control spending, garnished with a light
sprinkling of actual economic stimulants, by citing the once
fiscally incontinent Republicans for running up a trillion dollar
plus deficit over the past eight years. "If they could do it, we
can do it,” seems to be the sub-text of the President's line of
argument. Yes, we can. God made Democrats to spend, not
Republicans. Let the amateurs step aside for the real pros. No,
he didn't really say anything like this. But he really should
come up with a better argument than "The Republicans did it,
too.”
The Republicans did lose their souls and spent like
it was 1965. Shame on them for that. Still, as my wise mother
told me, time and time again, two wrongs do not make a right.
Newsweek says we are all socialists now,
and that government at all levels is going to consume close to 40
percent of our GDP!
I am starting to get really depressed. I was listening to
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on C-SPAN radio Monday while
driving home from work. He used to be Secretary of Education. He
observed that the stimulus bill doubles --
doubles! -- that Department's budget, which
is $68 billion, with no provision for reforms of any kind.
Whodathunkit? This is just one of the many snakes which will
continue to crawl out of this legislative tangle. We will be
hearing about these kinds of abominations for months to come if
this becomes law. If? I wish.
Have you noticed how President Obama seems to be
assuming a passive-aggressive stance with respect to the
deliberations on the stimulus package? On one hand he seems to
say that he is respectful of differing opinions. On the other he
is calling down hellfire on those who would presume to doubt the
wisdom of massive deficit spending for pet programs at the
expense of real stimulus. As the Wall Street
Journal has noted, the President has signed on
for the view that just about any kind of federal spending
qualifies as "stimulus" except for those contraceptives they
recently ditched.
And perish the thought that any supply-side tax cuts,
i.e., reducing marginal income tax rates, might be seriously
considered in this stimulus package. That economic boom during
the Reagan years, which carried over to the benefit of Bill
Clinton, was just a mirage.
One positive note: the GOP seems to have found its
conscience, although it is pretty late in the game. Except for
the usual suspects, it is heartening to see Republicans stand
shoulder to shoulder against what promises to be another
four-year spending spree right on the heels of their previous
eight-year run.
Thank the Lord for small favors.
topics:
Stimulus Package
