Hold The Stimulus And Pass The Tea

posted at 4:54 pm on September 6, 2010 by Doctor Zero

President Obama “unveiled” his new “stimulus” plan in Wisconsin today.  It was a lot like watching an alcoholic unveil his new plan to get sober by switching to lite beer:

We’re going to “fire up sluggish economic growth” by plowing another fifty billion deficit dollars into roads, rail, and airports?  It’s hard to believe even the American media would be lazy enough to write such a headline with a straight face.

Does anyone seriously think our economy is just waiting for another fifty billion dollars’ worth of roads to come roaring back to life?  I guess business owners have all sorts of property staked out for new factories and shops.  They’re just waiting for someone to build roads leading to them.  Does all of this Administration’s economic knowledge come from playing “Sim City” computer games?

In the fading days of the Democrats’ disastrous reign, we’ve come to a moment when they’re begging us to let them “create economic activity” by hiring one more team of union excavators to dig some random holes, and one more team of union construction workers to fill them right back in.

State governments are still sitting on hundreds of billions in unspent money from the first massive “stimulus” plan.  Why can’t they cut a few bucks out of their slush funds to build these desperately needed roads and airports?  If nearly $800 billion in madcap government spending produced nothing but massive unemployment, plus a bumper crop of road signs touting the glory of the stimulus plan, what good is another $50 billion going to do?

The Administration assures us its little espresso shot of new stimulus spending will be revenue neutral, paid for by “ending tax breaks for oil and gas companies.”  Oh, that’s just wonderful. Those tax hikes on oil and gas will be passed directly along to the consumer, in addition to hindering investment in the development of new energy resources.  The last thing a fragile, recessionary economy needs is an increase in energy costs.  I’m all in favor of tax simplification, but it has to be across the board.  Adding another few thousand pages to our ridiculous tax laws, to target unpopular companies for cash to fund more pork spending, plays up the worst aspects of a dysfunctional system.

We don’t need any more control from this incompetent Administration.  We don’t trust them to pick winners and losers in our economy, deciding which industries should be penalized to fund their latest hare-brained schemes.  We would be fools to trust them with another dime of our money.  They’re insane if they think an electorate prepared to sweep the President’s party out of office would be excited by the thought of purchasing another fifty billion dollars’ worth of failure.

The GOP should make it clear that any further spending from this Administration, including any wild schemes hatched during the lame-duck session of Congress, will be zeroed out when the new Republican Congress convenes.  It’s remarkable to note that, after two years of world-record deficits from unrestrained spending, this President has not proposed a single idea that would reduce the size or scope of our bloated government.  He needs to be sent a message that government will now be reduced. It doesn’t need to chow down on another fifty billion donuts before its crash diet begins.

No more taxes.  No more spending. Hold the stimulus, and pass the Boston Harbor tea, please.

Cross-posted at www.doczero.org.

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