I just love the supposed “economic stimulus” package that is floating around Congress these days. No, really. You know the one. It’s the one President Barack Obama wants to pass, and in a hurry. Last night, he gave a speech to a room full of Democrats at a private retreat (at a chi-chi resort partially paid for on the taxpayer dime, no less) stressing the importance of getting this bill off the ground, and soon. Unfortunately, this zeppelin is becoming more and more of a lead balloon and launching it may be the biggest boondoggle since last fall’s bailout bill.
I’m all for stimulating the economy. Believe me, I live in Michigan and here the economy needs more than a shot in the arm. I’ve been saying that for years. It needs a serious intravenous injection of life saving chemo. It needs life support; it needs all the drugs the pharmaceutical companies can come up with.
But, back to the bill: Can anyone yell “suuuee-EEEE!” What has been slipped under the radar as “economic stimulus” is in actuality a cavalcade of pork products. Instead of concrete measures for the creation of jobs and the shoring up of our faltering economy, we are handed a platter of bacon, hocks and ham. I’ve read the bill, and at more than 600 pages, just doing that is a gargantuan task.
As with the TARP bill last fall, I am amazed that our politicians aren’t reading the current offering; instead they're blindly touting it as the best thing to come down the pike since sliced white bread.
After whipping off two angry letters to my Congressional representatives last week, I received boilerplate email from them basically stating "‘thanks for your input, but I don’t care what you think." Perhaps this is because both are Democrats and both have their porky little fingers in the pie. I am even more amazed that our legislators believe that their constituencies won’t read the bill and react with the same kind of annoyance I am feeling. Are they really of the opinion that we are all mindless sheep, willing to follow them into the doomsday stockyard?
Personally, I’ve had it with the audacity of politicians. With each passing day, I am more convinced that there are two realities here in the US – the fairy tale world of politicians and the real and authentic world of everyone else.
Witness this week, the release of jailbird, convicted felon and ex-Hip Hop Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from the Wayne County lockup. With good behavior (?), he was out in 99 days and was spared the remaining three weeks of his 120-day sentence. His midnight exit included a fleet of black SUVs and a contingent of Nation of Islam bodyguards, as well as a bevy of news cameras. The next day, he flew to Texas to join his family, in a private jet, chartered for $30,000, where more news cameras awaited.
Article comments
1 - Baronius
Joanne, great as always.
2 - Dave Nalle
When I first read the bill 2 weeks ago it was only 250 pages. Last week when I reread it the length was about 500 pages. Now you've read a 600 page plus version? I've got to wonder what the hell they've added in the last two weeks to more than double the length of it.
Dave