Frank: Agree to stimulus now or watch us throw money away later

Just in case the message hasn’t quite gotten through to voters, Barney Frank reminded Republicans what one-party government would look like in 2009.  Democrats want to escalate government spending in what looks more like a new New Deal while we face the consequences of entitlement explosion that the first one created.  And if the GOP doesn’t play ball now, they’ll lose any chance of limiting the spending later:

Liberal-leaning economists made the case for several new and expensive spending programs as a House panel on Friday pressed the Democratic case for legislation to try again to jump-start the sagging economy.

Even though Congress is in recess, Democrats have held several hearings this week to make the case for a $150 billion or more economic stimulus measure to follow the $700 billion bank rescue passed three weeks ago. A round of tax rebates and business tax breaks passed in February was credited with giving the economy a modest boost over the summer, but fears of a protracted recession after the credit crisis have Democrats promising more. …

If Republicans continue to resist, said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Democrats are likely to rejoin the issue in January, when they expect party standard bearer Barack Obama to take the oath of office as president.

“There’s no question the House will pass … a much bigger (stimulus plan) than we passed before,” Frank said of a postelection lame duck session. “If enough Republicans in the Senate decide to filibuster it … then we’ll just wait until January.”

John McCain has apparently decided to make the divided-government argument in the final ten days.  This could be Exhibit A.  Without a check on a Democratic Congress in the White House, Frank and his allies will run wild on spending, creating massive new entitlements and government works programs, pulling capital out of the markets to fund it.  Instead of having a chance at reforming Social Security and especially Medicare, they’ll busily create an even bigger economic disaster.

Republicans need to defiantly answer Frank’s extortion by running this threat in ads for the next 10 days in every close Congressional race.  They need to ask voters whether they want to put government in the hands of people who want to take even more of their money to make government even bigger than it is now.  If nothing else, it prepares the ground for 2010 and the next midterms.

Update: How will they pay for it all?  Frank suggests a 25% reduction in defense spending — while we’re at war.

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