In this article detailing higher education’s salivation over Obama’s stimulus package, there is this bit:
Reading through the long list of new spending proposed by the House Appropriations Committee and new and expanded tax breaks suggested by the House Ways and Means Committee, it was hard to escape the feeling that Democrats, in putting together a plan to apply electroshock to jolt the economy out of its stupor, were taking advantage of the opportunity to satisfy the wish lists of many constituents. Indeed, to take the example of higher education, groups that represent a wide range of interests — and don’t always see eye to eye on what should take priority — all found a great deal to like in what House lawmakers (in collaboration with the incoming Obama administration) offered.
You don’t have to lard up a bill with pork when the entire bill is nothing but lard. Tax and spend liberals are going on a tax and spending spree and they are calling it “stimulus” as a means of selling it to an American populace economically shell-shocked by the financial meltdown. Everyone has their hand out, and no one is even mildly pointing out the fact that we don’t have any money to spend – not even enough for existing necessities of defense, health care and social security. Matt noted in an earlier post that one poll has 83% approving of Obama’s handling of the transition – which means that only a very few Americans are (a) fully paying attention (this is rather normal for politics, by the way: most people don’t pay attention until some massive crisis grabs their attention for a moment) and (b) understanding of the fact that we don’t have any money.
No people ever taxed or spent itself into prosperity – only hard work and sacrifice will do that. What we need is not Obama promising us the Moon, but Obama sternly asking Americans to tighten their belts and get to work like we’ve never worked before. We can, rather swiftly, get out of this mess if we just set our minds to making do with less for a few years while all of the bad investments shake themselves out and, by balancing our federal budget, we free up funds from government to the private sector to invest and expand. Obama is having none of this – with our nation in de-facto bankruptcy, Obama is proposing to send more kids to college, build more roads, provide “free” health care to even more people, spend even more money on research which may or may not wind up worthwhile…more and more and more, that is all Obama proposes.
A bit less is what we need – hold on to that car for an extra year; make do with last year’s clothing fashions for one more season; take a camping trip rather than a cruise; everyone be willing to take pay cuts to help our fellows (and, of course, our selves) keep our jobs; maybe the kiddies don’t need a new (and utterly worthless, at any rate) video game?… Obama is going to do it all, and the “hard choices” Obama might mention? That “the rich” might have a tax hike (as if they have any money to pay higher taxes right now), and Defense will have to be cut…but he’s not going to ask you, me or anyone to actually give up one thing, no matter how small.
Its all incredibly stupid, and it won’t work. Period. End of story.
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