The Decline of American Power

While it has been happening with an increasing pace over the last several years, today will be seen as the day when it accelerated. The era of big government is here.

Senators debate stimulus after reported deal

Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter broke ranks with the GOP and helped pass the Democrat special interests social programs pork laden monstrosity and may have done more damage to the American economy than any Congressional figures before them.

Barack Obama has shown his true colors. Apparently he, Reid, and Pelosi have cut deals for the state of Maine and Pennsylvania. Maine honestly has enough mill renovations for artists and prospective businesses that don't exist, so I know already that Collins and Snowe are masters at producing, and benefiting from pork.

This bill is 60% pork and very little of it actually even goes to the infrastructure improvements that could have created jobs in the short term, and built our economy in the long term. What it does instead is it expands government bureaucracy and buys the Democrats more votes from people who won't want to lose their often wasteful, and sometimes questionable government jobs.

Earlier Today:
Obama fires up House Democrats to help push through stimulus bill
"We're not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that, for the last eight years, doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin," he said. "We can't embrace the losing formula that says only tax cuts will work for every problem we face, that ignores critical challenges like our addiction to foreign oil, or the soaring cost of health care, or failing schools and crumbling bridges and roads and levees."
Trouble is THESE ARE THE SAME POLICIES THAT DOUBLED THE NATIONAL DEBT... ONLY WORSE!!!!!!!!!!
Bush passed one of the largest expansions in social services since FDR with his medicare bill. Bush rarely met a pork laden spending bill he didn't like. Bush passed a useless tax credit/check in the mail scheme, much like Obama's current proposal, only Obama plans to send the breaks primarily to people who didn't even pay taxes to begin with. (It is called Welfare... and it undoes some progress made in the Clinton years with the Gingrich Congress) Bush's tax break did next to nothing to help the economy, and neither will Obama's. And the fact that he mentions infrastructure in the same sentence as rising health care is a joke. Health care reform may provide a brief boon the first year or two (although in this economy it might not....). However, when the numbers come back and it is shown that Nationally funded health care at the current level of quality is unsustainable, ultimately it will result in hospital closures, less equipment, and less staff. As people at the lower end of the income bracket are forced to switch to government run insurance plans, it will begin a shuttering of insurance agencies and private companies. As this trickles into investment, and as the government limits how much can be spent on prescriptions, the pharmaceutical industry too will wilt and grind to a halt...... altogether shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs, making us poorer and more reliant on the system.

But infrastructure lets not forget about that!! Infrastructure... Construction Stimulus Breakdown Provided it remains similar to the house bill... which it seems like it will, only 160 billion or approximately 20% goes to what they call infrastructure... which is a loose definition. Only 50 billion (6.3%) is related to transportation... which I think is a huge mistake. We could have taken the opportunity to modernize this country and create a ton of jobs in the process, like FDR did... but instead this. The rest of "infrastructure" is related to crap which once complete, will have little to no bearing on the economy... if anything it will burden the economy further. Government health clinics, more Internet in schools, buildings to replace already functioning buildings, a bunch of crap for museums and the National Mall. We are in a National crisis... AND WERE GOING TO PLANT F$(&ing GRASS!!! Come on. The National Mall has looked like crap for as long as I remember. Lets worry about that when we have the time, or if we must get a chain gang or two out there and put them to work.

Commentary: Stimulate the economy, not government Romney gets it.

Stimulus Backers Face Growing Skepticism Over Need for Government Action
Even the Obama worshiping public are starting to get it....