Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Editorial: Stimulus and too much more
The federal economic stimulus plan has become bloated with unrelated spending and tax cuts.
From the RoundTable blog
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It's almost as if members of Congress want to go home early. How else to explain the bloated economic stimulus bill they are negotiating? Rather than remaining narrowly focused on recession busting, lawmakers are inserting seemingly everything they need or want to do this session.
The economy needs help; there is no question about that. Democrats who control Congress and the White House are working on a plan to deliver $825 billion worth of assistance. They approach it with little discipline, though. Lard, misplaced priorities, unrelated programs and ineffective spending quickly infected their bill.
Any kind of spending counts as economic stimulus. Pet projects abound. Southwest Virginia's freshman Rep. Tom Perriello has landed $13.5 billion worth of higher education tax credits, for example. It is a worthy federal investment, but it does not belong in an economic stimulus package. It deserves full consideration by Congress and a separate vote.
At least Democrats are backing off additional spending on family planning, at President Obama's urging. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth for contraception and family planning may be money well spent, but it won't stimulate the economic.
Democrats who rightly criticized a Republican-controlled Congress and White House a few years ago for practically bankrupting the nation with tax cuts and spending increases are now following the same course. They have inserted tax cuts into the stimulus plan, even though recent history has shown that approach to be ineffective at repairing America's financial woes.
Then there are the misplaced priorities. Congress scaled back investment in transit and other modes of transportation other than cars in order to afford tax cuts and infrastructure that serves cars primarily. That is not as forward-looking as Obama and Democrats once promised.
The emphasis on tax cuts appears to be an attempt to draw in Republicans. A few Republican votes and the veneer of bipartisanship do not justify duplicating the failed policies of Obama's predecessor. Members of Congress need to work together, but there is a difference between compromise and capitulation.
The GOP made hatred of the New Deal a cornerstone of its modern incarnation. It is hardly surprising, then, that the party does not like the stimulus plan, this new New Deal.
If this bill really is must-pass legislation, then Congress should treat it as such. Stay focused and include only what is necessary. Do not veer into areas that have nothing to do with economic stimulus.
