The first few days of the new Administration have been quite eventful. There's been some highs, some lows, and some holes that we can't see the bottom of yet.
Let's start off with some of the good things done since Obama took office last week. First, Obama has taken great strides in improving technology, pushing the executive branch into the 21st century. In addition, the Obama Team made an announcment to denounce lobbyists and any role they would play in the Administration.
With that said, a dark cloud covers these early days. After all the technology advancements, Obama made a puzzling move by pushing to delay the transition to DTV on February 17th to sometime in June. Then, after announcing the move against lobbyists, the new treasury secretary - Timothy Geithner - hired one to be his top aide. That's not all though - Geithner, who happens to be in charge of the IRS in his new position, failed to pay $34,000 in taxes to the aforementioned IRS due to not understanding TurboTax. This is the person who is supposed to rescue us from the financial abyss? Furthermore, while Geithner gets a pass, does anyone recall the furor over Joe the Plumber for owing $1,182 in taxes because he asked a question.
Finally we arrive at the $819 billion "stimulus" package. The outcry over this bill existed - and still does - but was not nearly that of the first package at $700 billion. I contend that this is due to a few reasons:
- Being desensitized to numbers so large and not understanding how much $819 billion actually is
- Exhaustion from the financial crisis
- An unwillingness from the media to criticize Obama's plan so soon into his first term
The package isn't going to stimulate anything except the pockets of those at the top of the ponzi scheme pyramid. Think for a second how much $819 billion dollars actually is - If you had a stack of $1000 bills, four inches thick, you'd be a millionaire. A stack of $1000 bills totaling $819 billion would be 51.7 miles long. So imagine those in close proximity to this. How many of them think "Nobody will miss an inch here or an inch there...after all, it is 51.7 miles long. A couple inches isn't anything."
Corruption aside, the details of the stimulus package are less than desirable. Please, someone explain how this pork will stimulate our economy:
- $335 million for STD prevention
- $140 million for climate data modeling
Lets consider that you believe either of these programs, or sums of money is justified. Fine, but that's for another discussion. The purpose of the stimulus package is to stimulate the economy. Furthermore, wouldn't stimulating the economy require immediate action and a quick infusion of funds into the market? If so, why is only 20% of entire package being used in 2009? No, this isn't a stimulus package - this is a vast expansion of government to push through pet projects of those in power. The vote was mostly a straight party line, although 11 Democrats had the courage to vote against something that will hurt our country. So a nice pat on the back for the following Democrats:
Allen Boyd - FL; Bobby Bright, AL; Jim Cooper, TN; Brad Ellsworth, IN; Parker Griffith, AL; Paul Kanjorski, PA; Frank Kratovil, MD; Walter Minnick, ID; Collin Peterson, MN ; Heath Shuler, NC; Gene Taylor, MS
If any other persuasion is needed on this stimulus package, look at the numbers given by those in charge of it. They predict that it would "save or create 3 million new jobs over the next few years." Lets give the benefit of the doubt and assume that it won't simply save jobs, but will only create new jobs. At $819 billion, the math works out to $273,000 per job - the average salary of Americans, right?
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