Today the Senate passed the $838 billion stimulus package. I only have one thing to say about this, YES! This is a very proud moment for any liberal, that our president has accomplished one of the things that he set out to do. But now is not the time to celebrate, we have much more work to do. Now that we have the tools that we need, assuming the bill passes after conference, we must use them to get down to the harder work. We must put 3.6 million people back to work, fix our crumbling infrastructure, lay the framework for our energy independence, create a "green economy", give every American health care, and at the top of our list, fix our economy. Last month, reports showed that 598,000 more jobs were shed from our economy. This puts our unemployment rate at 7.6%, a 0.4 point jump from December. This is by far one of the wrost economic downturn that our country has ever faced. I am very happy that this bill has passed, but I am also a little worried.
I believe that the bill may be a little too small. Compared to the huge problems that we face, I am worried that the bill is not large enough to get people back to work, free up the credit markets, and get the overall health of the economy back up to par. In the 1930's this country was deep into the Great Depression, and Franklin Roosevelt responded in about the same manner that President Obama is now. By developing spending programs that built infrastructure which put people back to work and gave them money that they would spend to put back into the economy. Now, when Roosevelt first began spending, he tried to keep the budget balanced, and reign in spending, which seemed to be working. However, in 1937, the country slid into a new slump. Then, Roosevelt decided to put the budget at the bottom of the list and just spend to get things rolling again. After he made this desicion, the economy grew and the rest is history.
I am very concerned by what the Republicans are trying to do. By cutting so much of the spending out of this bill, they are setting our recovery up for a failure of huge proportions. Now I understand their wanting of a balanced bill and balanced budget, but as I said above, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If were are to fix this economy, we must do alot of deficit spending. Many economists agree, that we should create deficits to lift ourselves out of economic problems. Then, let the deficit shrink in good economic times, to prepare for worse times. If the New Deal tought us anything it is that we must start off with more rather than less, or be prepared for much more down the line. If we don't beef this up in conference, it may still work, but will be much less effective. I am not proposing that we add $200 billion to the pricetag, what I am proposing, is that we remove these ill-advised tax cuts, that are not stimulative, and replace them with more funding for energy, education, infrastructure, and health care investments. I especially believe there should be more infrastructure spending. Removing these tax cuts would make the bill much more effective in addressing one of the most dire economic chapters in America's history.
The tax cuts worry me because I have a memory. Does anyone remember that $135 billion stimulus that we passed last year? Reports show that, by best chances, only about 15% of that money that was just handed out to people, made it back into the economy. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't giving people tax cuts just about the same as handing money right out to them? And the return on that money would probably be even less now, especially now that American's buying habits have gotten worse as the economy has gotten worse. Do we really need to take a 15% chance that our economy will be fixed? I don't think so.
On the other hand, if we invest that money in infrastructure, by rebuilding our nations roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, energy systems, and the other hundreds of thousands of projects that need done, we will be creating jobs at the same time. Now if we create jobs, we are not just handing the money out, we are providing long term security to the millions that don't have that right now. We will give them a regular paycheck, another thing they don't have right now. We will recieve more money from the income taxes from these new jobs then they would have ever spent, and that money would flow right into the economy, not just have a 15% chance of doing so. And above all, we would have invested in America's future by rebuilding our infrastructure, the physical basis that our nations economy rests upon.
I guess we will just have to wait and see what comes of this package, but I am still deeply concerned that it is too small, but only time can tell.
Special Note
I would like to take this time to commend three senators, Republican senators, for putting aside the differences that have divided the Congress the past two weeks, and by reaching across the isle to accomplish what has happened today. Thank you Senator Susan Collins, Senator Olympia Snowe, and Senator Arlen Specter, you truly represent bipartisanship.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.
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