Isn’t it odd that the media is not talking about what is in this so-called $825 billion economic stimulus plan? You know why. It’s because the bill contains way more pork than economic stimulus. Breaking another of his campaign promises to cut pork out of every bill he signs, the New York Times is making a feign attempt of real journalism by pointing out Obama’s real plan. But only after it already passed in the House.
As President Obama and Congress barrel toward the latest emergency program to resuscitate the American economy, one question is looming over their search for a cure: Can the government fashion a fast and efficient economic stimulus while also seizing the moment to remake America?
For now, Mr. Obama and his aides are insisting they can accomplish both goals, following their mantra of using the urgency of the economic crisis to accomplish larger – and long-delayed – reforms that never garnered sufficient votes in ordinary times.
What’s this ‘remake America’ crap? It’s simple, and it also explains why all the pork is in the bill, including support for his wacko base in the name of ACORN, which was already rejected last year when the Obama campaign first suggested the $700 billion ‘stimulus’ package.
Pushing this bill through Congress is Obama’s attempt of following Rahm Emanual’s advice. What he calls ‘rule one.’
“Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” Mr. Emanuel said in an interview on Sunday. “They are opportunities to do big things.”
Key point in the Times’ article regarding the plan is their analysis that much of the pork in the bill contains ‘reforms that never garnered sufficient votes in ordinary times.’ This is exactly what Rahm Emanual means in not letting our current economic crisis to ‘go to waste.’
The AP calls the stimulus plan as a ‘bill to fuel Obama’s priorities.’ It ‘makes quick work possible.’ They don’t have the courage to say that the plan is not an economic stimulus plan.
Says al-AP Jan 18, 2009:
The economic crisis that will dominate Barack Obama’s first 100 days as president, and beyond, will give him a rare chance to enact big portions of his agenda that otherwise might have languished for months or years.
Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt has a new president been poised to pack so many ambitious, costly – and, under more normal circumstances, highly contentious – projects into one fast-moving bill.
Touting this plan as an ‘economic stimulus’ is fraudulent on its face. It represents more a big government stimulus than an economic one. Write your senators and tell them not to approve this plan as it is currently written. Remove the pork and instead, put the Democrats’ wish list for America into separate bills and let Congress vote on them individually. Make them live up to their claim of openness and transparency.
link: NYT, A Stimulus Plan With Dual Goals: Reform and Recovery | Stimulus bill to fuel Obama’s priorities | Contact Your Senators