Economic Stimulus?

So I'm just a little -- no, I won't lie -- I'm a lot - frustrated with this whole "stimulus" thing.

I've put some facts below about the stimulus and, honestly, I mostly see it as an excuse for Obama/dems in Congress to get what they've always wanted done and for Obama to achieve some of his campaign promises. I mean, I really don't think that part of this stimulus bill should be to "prepare us for universal healthcare," but it is convenient for Obama who promised universal healthcare to the people. He just has a good way of getting the money to do it now -- just call it stimulus and it's all good. Right? Uhm, NO!

I don't care if people are Democrats or Republicans (I don't think I'm either at this point), but I do care if you're informed. If you're going to support something, at least know what's in it for the most part. Do your research, be informed and then CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. They work for you, after all. Or they should...that's supposed to be the idea of government officials. . .

Below is a graph showing recessions in the U.S. in correlation to how much money was printed at that time. Quite interesting that we're doing something that's never been done before. We've always gotten out of recessions without this large amount of spending, why are we allowing them to convince us that we have no other options now? Sorry, I forewarned that I'm keyed up over this whole thing. I'll just shut up and let the facts speak for themselves now.

Total Cost of Stimulus Legislation: $825 billion

How does this compare?

• In 1993, the unemployment was virtually the same as the rate today (around 7%). Yet, President Clinton’s proposed stimulus legislation *only* contained $16 billion in spending

• The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

• This legislation nears a trillion dollars. President Reagan said the best way to understand a trillion dollars is to imagine a crisp, new stack of $1000 bills.

• If you had a stack four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion-dollar stack of $1000 bills would measure just over 63 miles high.

• In $20 bills, a trillion dollar stack would be 3150 miles high. That’s about the distance between DC and Trujillo, Peru.

• President Obama has said that his proposed stimulus legislation will create or save 3 million jobs. This means that this legislation will spend about $275,000 per job. The average household income in the U.S. is $42,000 a year.

• This bill provides enough spending to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700.

• This bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

• Although this legislation has been billed and described as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, but only three percent ($30 billion) of this package is for road and highway spending.

• Much of the funding within the proposed stimulus package will go to programs which already have large, unexpended balances.

• For example, the draft bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which already has $16 billion on hand.

• And, this year, Congress has plans to rescind $9 billion in highway funding that the states have not yet used.

• Deficit spending will not expand the economy. If that were true, then the current $1.2 trillion deficit -- the largest in history -- would already be rescuing the economy.

• $800 billion more will not change that.

• Trade groups state that every $1 billion in highway “stimulus” can be spent creating 34,779 new construction jobs.

• But Congress must first borrow that $1 billion out of the private sector.

• The private sector then loses or forgoes roughly the same number of jobs.

• Japan responded to a 1990 recession by passing 10 “stimulus” bills over 8 years (building the largest national debt in the industrialized world). Their economy remained stagnant and their per capita income went from the second highest in the world to the tenth highest.

To see the source of this info, go here.

I think I'm with Glenn Beck on this one --- "I'd rather go through a tough period and cleanse ourselves from these bad companies and all the mistakes. I'd rather learn the lesson and still have a little bit of capitalism left."

Let's just suck it up and let people learn to be responsible and learn the hard way - because they're not going to learn anything by being bailed out all the time. It's good to fail. It's even better to get yourself back up again after failing -- but we're taking that option off the table at the moment.

So decide where you stand and call your representatives because the House may be voting on this thing TODAY!

...and have a happy Wed! I'm off to help Amy tape/caulk her upstairs in preparation for painting before the big birthday/Super Bowl party on Sunday.

p.s. if you live in Mesa/Q.C. - Jeff Flake is your representative and he's NOT voting for the stimulus -- I just called Washington.

p.p.s. I know if I read this, I would get excited and then never call, so I'll make it easy for you. Go here and you can type in your state and find your representative and his/her contact information.

p.p.p.s. 4:35 PM - I just found out that it passed in the House.