thoughts on the stimulus plan

this is not a discussion of my wife's attempts to get me off the couch. it is about the plan to pump billions into the economy to stimulate it to grow again. think of it as economic fertilizer.

the plan is for the administration to pump $787 billion into the economy. so, you are thinking, why has not all that money resulted in a booming economy. well, first of all, although the administration, i.e., the president, said he would put this money into the economy quickly because we could not wait to do something, he has not done so. i know, you can't believe he would say one thing and do another.

however, do the math. the administration has spent only $151 billion of the $787 billion promised. That is about 19% of the amount promised.

the president promises to spend another $185 billion by the end of the year. that would bring the total to $336 billion. That is about 42%, still less than half.

if the recovery is so urgent, why is the president waiting to spend the money. many analysts, and your humble servant, predicted the end of the recession this fall. I said september, but it looks like it may take longer. since the recession has not ended, following the president's reasoning that investing tax dollars in the economy is the only way to save jobs and prevent a depression, is the president not negligent for failing to put the money in that congress has authorized? is he just not able to spend it?

the next, and biggest wave of spending is actually scheduled for next year. the governmetn will spend another $399 billion. why are we waiting for the biggest chunk of all to be spent next year? my guess is because the spending will be right before the mid term elections and will be used to buy votes for the democrats in the house.

finally, the president will postpone spending the final $134 billion until the end of 2011, happily just in time for the president's re-election campaing to begin. for a president that campaigned on hope and promise and ethics, he seems pretty calculating and self serving in this the biggest credit card in history.

meanwhile, 2.4 million people have lost their jobs since the stimulus promotion began. the national unemployment rate increased to 9.7%, almost one out of ten americans. this is a 26 year high, but expected to go higher. yet the president continue to hold on to the money he promised to spend and that the democrats maintain is necessary. the president's chief economic advisor, larry summers, says unemployment will "...by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for years to come."
since the president took office, america has lost 3 million jobs, while the democrats maintained that we would gain 3-4 million jobs.

yet, it looks like democrats will hold the money and use it for their own political gain at the expense of working americans.

i still maintain that the best way to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes and send us all a check. we'll spend the money and that will stimulate the economy.