The Government Spending Bill

I've been reading a lot about the Economic Stimulus Bill and wanted to attempt to capture some of the information I have gathered on the web. There are a ton of good articles and posts out there that are worth reading when it comes to the far-reaching aspects of this bill. I disagree on a fundamental level with increasing the size of government, which this bill would drastically do. I find it laughable that people could read what is included in this bill and still honestly believe it will help stimulate the economy. Hopefully, the more people hear about the erroneous claims attached to this bill, the more our representatives in Washington will hear from their constituents about how idiotic this bill is.

Do the research for yourself people! Read the bill and for each item included therein ask yourself the question "Does this immediately stimulate the economy? If the answer is no, then that item should not be included in this bill. Are there a few items in this bill that are worthwhile in the short run? Sure, but they are vastly overshadowed by the ridiculous amount of pork that has been attrached to this bill.

Justin Taylor :

Harvard economics professor Robert Borro: "This is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s. I don't know what to say. I mean it's wasting a tremendous amount of money. It has some simplistic theory that I don't think will work, so I don't think the expenditure stuff is going to have the intended effect. I don't think it will expand the economy. And the tax cutting isn't really geared toward incentives. It's not really geared to lowering tax rates; it's more along the lines of throwing money at people."

Amanda Shaw:

It’s 1.1 times ten to the twelfth power, or 1,100,000,000,000. To put that in perspective, the Family Research Council has pulled out a calculator and crunched some numbers. With $1.1 trillion, the grand total so far of Obama’s stimulus plan, we could pave the entire US interstate highway system with 23.5-karat gold, we could build 16.6 million Habitat for Humanity houses, we could hire 1.9 million teachers.

To put this further in perspective:
* The Marshall Plan cost $12.7 billion ($115.3 billion, adjusted for inflation)
* The space race cost $36.4 billion ($237 billion with inflation)
* The Korean War cost $54 billion ($454 billion with inflation)
* The New Deal cost $32 billion (estimated; $500 billion with inflation)
* The invasion of Iraq cost $551 billion ($597 billion with inflation)
* The Vietnam War cost $111 billion ($698 billion with inflation)

So, the total cost of the Marshall Plan, the Korean War, and the New Deal—using all figures adjusted for inflation—is less than that of the current economic stimulus package. That’s how much $1.1 trillion is.

Wild Walker World:
A portion of the response from Congressman Todd Akin(MO):

To give you a sense of just how large the stimulus package is, the House-passed version is:

o Almost the size of Mexico's economy ($893 billion in 2007).
o 33.7% larger than all spending on Social Security
o 33.4% more than the defense budget.
o 24.6% more than federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid combined.

Additionally, allow me to list a few of my personal concerns with the Democrat's bill:

o It will cost $10,520 per family in debt spending. In fact, some economists say it would be cheaper to give every working family in America a one-year tax holiday.
o Only $26 Billion or 7% of the proposed stimulus funds will be spent in 2009.
o Only $30 Billion or 3 percent - throughout the life of the entire stimulus package would be directed towards "shovel ready" road and highway projects.
o The bill also circumvents the regular budget process by creating 32 new programs at a cost of $136 billion.
o It contains $16.4 billion in new spending for federal agencies - including office furniture at the Public Health Service.
o It spends $54 billion on 19 programs rated by the Office of Management and Budget as "ineffective" or "results not demonstrated." President Obama has said that we can no longer afford to be "squandering billions of tax dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness." Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi's House majority has chosen to put forward legislation that is inconsistent with the President's vision for "smarter" government.

Finally, I could not support H.R. 1 because I believe history demonstrates that when government removes billions of dollars from the economy in the name of "stimulus," the result is not a shortened recession but a prolonged depression.

Washington Times:

President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more
in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.