A lot has happened this week as far as the markets and the economy are concerned (I’ll give you my take on those within a couple of days), but when reading the provisions of the stimulus package passed by the house yesterday without a single Republican vote, it’s enough to make me sick.
Not only will the stimulus package not work, it’s loaded – l-o-a-d-e-d- with pork… so much for responsibility, change and a new direction. The campaign is over and it’s business as usual for the new batch of politicians taking up space in Washington. After reading some of what the stimulus package contains and comparing it to the rhetoric that I heard during the campaign, I think it might be a good idea to shut down Washington along with the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Take a look at what 244 of your representatives voted to do with some of your future money: (Don’t forget that we have no existing money to spend – we’re borrowing against our future production – see my blog dated January 12 “Abbreviated Market Outlook”) (Source: ABC News)
$335 million for education related to sexually transmitted diseases
$650 million for coupons to help people make the switch to digital TV
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$150 million for the Smithsonian Institution
$50 million for the National Cemetery Administration’s monument and memorial repairs
$800 million for Amtrak, the country’s railroad system
$2 billion for child-care subsidies
$400 million for global warming research
$100 million for reducing the danger of lead paint in homes
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$50 million for NASA facilities that may have been harmed by natural disaster
$200 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes
$650 million for the U.S. Forest Service to remove fish passage barriers, forest improvement and watershed enhancement projects
$1.5 million for a National Institute of Health/Institute of Medicine report to Congress
$50.6 million for services for older blind individuals
$400 million for the Social Security Administration’s new National Computer Center
$325 million for Academic Achievement Awards
In today’s government tax and spend is out of vogue, the new trend is spend and spend.
The Heritage Foundation published these lucid points regarding the stimulus package:
-Even after adjusting for inflation, this package makes the New Deal look small.
-Passing this bill is the equivalent of borrowing an additional $10,520 from every family in America.
-If Government spending solved recessions, we’d never have recessions.
Hey congress, if you’re listening, here’s a blast from the past you ought to know about. Any one of you read history?
“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.” – FDR’s Treasury Sec. Henry Morgenthau Jr., architect of the New Deal.
These folks in Washington, in my opinion, are out of control. Before the stimulus package was passed, a provision to provide family planning services through the Medicaid program without parental consent or proof of citizenship was removed. Prior to the removal of this provision, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Nancy Pelosi to explain how this provision would create jobs. Watch her answer here. Notice how she delivers her answer with a straight face albeit with some hesitation; bet she practices in front of the mirror.
For a copy of Mr. Tubbergen’s complete first quarter market update visit:
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