Spend , Spend, Spend, the stimulus is about spending!

 

President Obama says the Stimulus is about spending.

There are numerous articles on the breakdown of the Stimulus package detailing the amounts of dollars given to each group. 

Ideas change from spending to tax cuts.  In a speech at George Mason University on Thursday, President Obama summed it up  “There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable. It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all.”  

On Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said. “Americans across this country are struggling, and they are watching to see if we’re equal to the task before us. Let’s show them that we are. And let’s do whatever it takes to keep the promise of America alive in our time,” 

One department that has doesn’t care whether the Democrats or Republicans are in leadership,  is the Congressional Budget Office. (CBO) They report that only $26 billion of the stimulus is going to be spent this year, another $110 billion will be spent next year. That means that only 16% of the budget has been spent.

The Stimulus was supposed to be a jolt to the economy,   like a “crash cart” in an ER room – lets charge the paddles and  power the economy into a restart, not a trickle down effect.  

An interesting fact was brought up by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. “We borrowed $800 billion dollars between the Revolutionary War and the presidency of Jimmy Carter and we are going to borrow that amount in one fell swoop.”

Changeover to Digital TV and Converter boxes.
Will this create new spending? Is the point of the new $650 million for converter boxes to provide a shot in the arm for converter box makers? I am sure that this is one industry that everyone is worried about, right?  Wouldn’t  the workers prefer to have the $50 go towards possibly upgrading their Tv sets? instead of leaving people with the idea that the old is the way forward.

Clean Energy.
As part of the creation of clean energy we should be investing in Solar, Wind and Nuclear power, but when only 2% is earmarked and only 1/7th of 2% is going to be spent over 2 years it doesn’t seem  like any stimulus.  But wait,  lets make sure we buy the government new cars and new computers immediately as that will be an immediate boost – not to America but to foreign economy in the area of “imports”.

Originally born in England, this economic change looks to be about moving jobs into certain areas than free enterprise and financial growth and is more of a resemblance to being a socialist state than democratic. This will be an interesting year!