Blue Dog nips Obama with a better stimulus idea
Examiner Editorial
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February 10, 2009
While President Barack Obama goes on the road to shore up slipping popular support for the $1 trillion stimulus porkfest that he ordered up from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Walt Minnick, a freshman Democrat from Idaho, is pushing a better idea: The Strategic Targeted American Recovery and Transition Act (START).
Minnick is a member of the Blue Dog caucus of occasionally conservative Democcrats. His START plan is a $170 billion “bare bones” pure stimulus approach that would put $100 billion immediately into the pockets of low- and middle-income Americans, then use the other $70 billion for basic infrastructure projects that create jobs. START requires that all funds not spent by 2010 be returned to the Treasury. START also stops stimulus spending when the nation’s Gross Domestic Product increases in two of three previous quarters, and all START payments are required to be posted on a public website.
Minnick introduced START as an alternative – just in case the legislative process stalls out, says press secretary John Foster. As one of the brave 11 Democrats who voted against Pelosi’s stimulus bill, Minnick explained to folks back home that he opposed the speaker’s version because it was so “Christmas-treed up” with wasteful spending, like $300 million for golf carts. Foster told The Examiner that the House leadership encourages members to do what’s best for their districts, so there has been no backlash. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Recent CBS and Rasmussen polls found that the public is becoming less enchanted with the idea of imposing a trillion dollar debt on future generations, especially a plan that will do more long-term damage to the economy than doing nothing, according to the
Congressional Budget Office. Yet once enacted, this massive stimulus program cannot be undone – even though there’s no guarantee it will work. If it doesn’t, then what? We’ve already thrown away $350 billion on a bank bailout. When is it time to stop throwing borrowed money after bad? "We’ve got to get this economy moving again, but we’ve got to do it in an effective way without saddling our children with $1 trillion in debt,” Minnick said. “If we’ve got to spend, every nickel needs to create jobs, and create them quickly.”In other words, START is everything the Senate and House stimulus proposals are not - targeted, timely and temporary.
