No Stimulus From Senate

Filed under: American, Economy, Senate — marc moore on February 7, 2008 @ 3:24 pm CET

Senate Republicans held together, mostly, to stop the Democrats’ stimulus package from passing, according to the NY Times:

The measure was opposed by Republican leaders who said the Democrats added too many costly provisions, including an extension of unemployment benefits, tax credits for the coal industry and increased subsidies for home energy costs.
The total cost of the Senate plan came to about $204 billion over two years, or about $40 billion more than the House version.

Stopping this bloated giveaway extravaganza is a good thing.

Unlike what Republican leader Mitch McConnell thinks, there’s absolutely no sense in this sequence of events:

Citizens earn money
Federal government taxes them
Federal government spends all tax “revenue” and then some
Federal government borrows money to give back to taxpayers to “stimulate” economy

That’s a fool’s thinking and a recipe for inevitable economy disaster, if perpetuated.

Yet President Bush, nominally a Republican, is 100% behind the tax-spend-borrow plan:

The White House again urged the Senate to act quickly.
“It is crucial that the Senate now move quickly to pass a bill that will deliver relief to our economy,” the press secretary, Dana M. Perino, said.

As bad as the House version of this bill is - and it’s bad, to the tune of $160B - the Senate version is that much worse.

Notably, John McCain, the newly-minted fiscal conservative who saved us billions on that tanker deal - you know, the one he mentions in every debate - did not vote on this bill but said that he’d have voted against it. Good for you John. I imagine you’ll get that chance in coming days and that, in the end, the American people will be another $200B in debt.

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1 abrisaham

February 8, 2008 @ 2:00 am CET

tax credits for the coal industry

In writing the following I must admit I have read nothing about this plan because I knew it would fail. The democrats already said they were going to add all kinds of stuff including road paving to this give away so I knew it would have no chance and would be vetoed if nothing else so why read up on it.

That being said.

Anyone ever wonder just how sane the democratic party is? I mean its the environment stupid. Global warming will kill us all. Coal is the number one contributor to destroying the planet. So what do we do?

I know…….lets give tax credits to the coal industry.

2 Dean

February 8, 2008 @ 6:34 pm CET

My god, yes. Heaven forbid that we actually help the people that (gasp) need the help! Those low income folks who need help heating their homes in this cold and expensive winter need to just suck it up and stop being so dang poor, right? And as for the unemployed? Come on, of course it is wasteful and extravagant to assist the people who are actually being affected by the recession, ie those who have no jobs.

And production-increasing tax credits for industry during a low production cycle in the economy? Evil and heartless, a spend-o-rama that must be opposed on basic principle.

Oh, unless a republican is doing it, naturally. ‘Cause then it is actually compassionate, as the wealthy corps that get the tax breaks will some how "trickle down" their gov sponsored gifts upon the "low casts" like some drunk outside of a bar pissing on the worms that these people are. Poor people are such a drain huh?

3 Jay_C

February 28, 2008 @ 1:57 pm CET

No Dean, Poor people are not a drain so long as they are citizens of the U.S. You are not looking at the root cause of the issue, just the surface issue. As far as the stimulus package goes. If a U.S. citizen is down on their luck and as a result need help, they should get it. The problem is that there are more and more people that "need" help that are came the U.S. illegally, and they are putting a strain on our resources for U.S. citizens that are down on their luck and need the help. Why should an illegal (or for that matter a citizen that is dishonest and is living off the government unnecessarily) get resources that should go to a U.S. citizen that actually needs it? Iam not offering a solution, but pointing out one of the areas where we need to tighten the belt on giving aid. We should no longer give aid to those who should not get it (Non- US citizens and U.S. Citizen leeches who could work but play the loopholes of the system and chose not to work) , and give it to those in the U.S. who really need it (really can’t work, or are temporarily down on their luck). Where that aid comes from and how it is distributed is another story. In regards to the story above, The checks the government will be giving us for this tax year are a joke. I would rather see the money I would be getting in the check, taken off the federal taxes I owe going forward (don’t take that amount in federal taxes out of my paycheck(s). This aid like the author said, is just putting us and our children, (and if we keep going on this path, our children’s children) further in debt.