Analyze This, Stimulate That

The President has a few major issues this week that are likely to haunt him for the next few weeks. His 850B stimulus package is apparently short on stimulus and long on pork barrel spending, often referred to as earmarks. Almost 70-percent of the package will not be spent for at least eighteen months and the remainder will not be spent for at least six. By the time the money starts to reach the economy the recession will be 18 months in length and may well be ending. This completely overlooks the fact that most of the bill is every leftover Democratic proposal that has been squashed by sensible members of Congress or President Bush over the last eight years, as well as programs that even Bill Clinton rejected. In so far as the remainder of TARP funds is concerned I agree with Mr. Obama that firms that take taxpayer dollars should forego giving bonuses to their executives for whom bonuses are not part of their regular earnings, such as sales commissions, incentives, etc. The stimulus bill will meet some resistance in the Senate this week and while this will not prevent it from passing hopefully the minority can restore some sense to the Democrats who are so giddy over the prospect of funding all their pet projects they want Obama to nominate Hew Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg to Commerce Secretary to get a Democratic replacement and inch them closer to a veto-proof majority in the Senate. Unfortunately Judd Gregg has paid his taxes, has never been employed as a lobbyist and never used services that he neglected to put on his tax return like Timothy Geitner and former Senate Majority Leader Daschle, so there is a good chance that if he wants the job he'll be confirmed. These issues will be gone in a few weeks and the best the American people can hope for is the return of sanity to the budget process and the so-called stimulus package