“Stimulus” Bill update.

Remember back in February when the “Stimulus” Bill was about to be voted on and logical, principled arguments like, “how can anyone vote on it, as no one has had time to read it” were shrugged off due to the “emergency” situation we were in?

Remember the hysterical cries to push the bill through because every day that passed by without it meant thousands upon thousands of jobs were lost?

Remember the promises of quickly getting this money into the economy and therefore creating hundreds of thousands of jobs?

Remember how vital President Obama thought it was to pass the bill that he waited three full days to sign it (two of which were spent with Michelle on a Valentine’s Day getaway, less than a month into his term)?

So how’s that “stimulus” plan working out?

Well, let’s see…

1. Despite the absolutely ridiculous claims by the White House of 150,000 jobs being saved as a result of the “stimulus” plan (a claim that is totally unsubstantiated), the unemployment rate has gone from 7.6% to 9.4%...not good. What about those 600,000 jobs you keep promising Mr. President, where are they?

2. Only 6% of the “emergency” funds have been spent, showing that this “emergency” was nothing but a farce.

3. The Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board estimates $55 billion of the $787 billion will be lost to waste, fraud and abuse. This prompted Vice President Biden to opine, "We know some of this money is going to be wasted. There are going to be mistakes made. Some people are being scammed already." Lovely.

I know it’s early and I know that the president’s supporters will say, “How can you pass judgment on this plan this already?”, but the writing is on the wall, the “stimulus” plan hasn’t worked.

Yes, it is early; however, we are supposed to be reaping the rewards from this plan by now. It has been over four months since it’s been passed, when is it going to start working? I would love to know the date when it is ok to panic over the $1.1 trillion wasted on this “stimulus” plan (Don’t forget the $348 billion to finance this behemoth).

You see, this is why I rallied so hard about the bailout bill back in September. Besides wasting $750 billion on the initial financial bailout, it made us, the American public, desensitized to these astronomical dollar figures. Now, when we hear something will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, we don’t bat an eye. The outrage is gone. And now, what are we left with? Well, in this case a “stimulus” plan that has done anything but.

But don’t worry everyone, I’m sure President Obama has a well-thought out plan for all…Ha, ha, ha, ha!!! Oh man, I thought I could say that with a straight face.

Yeah, it’s not going to work, as you can’t spend your way out of an economic crisis.

But hey, all those million dollar guardrails and turtle highways are going to make great photo ops, won’t they? They will enable all of the politicians that supported this “stimulus” package to say, “See, look at what we did…you know, besides cripple the economy with unsustainable debt.”

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John