contact.ipr@gmail.com


← →

Libertarian Party blog: Congress, Obama only ’stimulating’ government

February 5th, 2009 · 5 Comments

The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger doesn’t point out congressional Republicans voted against the stimulus, not out of opposition to Big Government, but in spite of it.  They simply wanted their pork included.

But Henninger does ask the question no one on Capitol Hill wants offered — if this $1.2 trillion Frankenstein’s monster of wealth transfers and exploding spending is supposed to create jobs and help families, why then does it do more for Pennsylvania Avenue than for Main Street?  And he takes Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to task for playing along with Obama’s dreams of exponentially-expanding government.

Henninger reports:

Check your PC’s virus program, then pull down the nearly 700 pages of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Dive into its dank waters and what is most striking is how much "stimulus" money is being spent on the government’s own infrastructure. This bill isn’t economic stimulus. It’s self-stimulus.

(All sums here include the disorienting zeros, as in the bill.)

Title VI, Financial Services and General Government, says that "not less than $6,000,000,000 shall be used for construction, repair, and alteration of Federal buildings." There’s enough money there to name a building after every Member of Congress.

The Bureau of Land Management gets $325,000,000 to spend fixing federal land, including "trail repair" and "remediation of abandoned mines or well sites," no doubt left over from the 19th-century land rush.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are getting $462,000,000 for "equipment, construction, and renovation of facilities, including necessary repairs and improvements to leased laboratories."

The National Institute of Standards gets $357,000,000 for the "construction of research facilities." The Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets $427,000,000 for that. The country is in an economic meltdown and the federal government is redecorating.

The FBI gets $75,000,000 for "salaries and expenses." Inside the $6,200,000,000 Weatherization Assistance Program one finds "expenses" of $500,000,000. How many bureaucrats does it take to "expense" a half-billion dollars?

The current, Senate-amended version now lists "an additional amount to be deposited in the Federal Buildings Fund, $9,048,000,000." Of this, "not less than $6,000,000,000 shall be available for measures necessary to convert GSA facilities to High-Performance Green Buildings." High performance?

Sen. Tom Coburn is threatening to read the bill on the floor of the Senate…

…President Obama is saying the bill will "create or save" three million new jobs. The bad news is your new boss is Uncle Sam.

Read Henninger’s column for yourself at The Wall Street Journal website.


Posted at LP.org by Donny Ferguson. Reposted to IPR by Paulie.

Filed Under: Libertarian Party

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Catholic Trotskyist // Feb 5, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    Stimulating government is stimulating all of life, as long as it is done for promoting the common good of the common people of God.

  • 2 Jere Shocly**+ ** // Feb 5, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    “The country is in an economic meltdown and the federal government is redecorating.” -Daniel Henninger

    “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
    — Thomas Jefferson

    “This is the most important time in your political life! Don’t hesitate to let your voices be heard.” – me

    “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
    - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

    “It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
    — Samuel Adams

    Will someone else, beside Henninger, speak up against this truly manmade disaster ?

  • 3 Elliott Kay // Feb 5, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    Simple question: why would anyone actually interested in the long-term welfare of this country wish to add another $1,000,000,000,000 to our deficit to knock a few months off a recession that will correct itself within a couple years at most?

    If you really want to stimulate the economy, how about giving us all one-year waiver on paying income taxes? Tax-cuts are the ONLY real way to stimulate an economy.

  • 4 paulie cannoli // Feb 5, 2009 at 9:20 pm

    @ Liberty Maven

    My Stimulus Package Is Bigger Than Yours

    February 5th, 2009 1:59 pm | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Big Government, Economics, Humor, Maven Commentary, Politics, government spending | Comment

    Obama took office and immediately began waving around his huge stimulus package. “It is really inappropriate behavior–way too big”, said Ron Paul, Republican Congressman from Texas.

    The Democrats in the House adored Obama’s package. Only 12 Democrats shunned the package. Not a single Republican was turned on by it.

    Obama then exposed it to the Senate. He met privately with Republican Senators to show it off. They came away unimpressed.

    Republicans chose a leader to show off a package of their own. Even though they complained it was too big, they revealed an even larger package.

    Meanwhile, the citizens of America are starting to get worried. And for good reason.

    It seems that the longer the debate goes on the bigger the package will be. And they know that the bigger the package the more it’s going to hurt.

    Wait… are we still talking about the economy?

    No matter, the people always get screwed in the end.

    Hmm… that last bit didn’t come out quite right either. I think I’ll just stop typing.

  • 5 paulie cannoli // Feb 7, 2009 at 1:56 am

    …and no, that is not me, lol

Leave a Comment