The House of Representatives will today pass President Obama’s $900 billion stimulus bill, despite the beliefs of many economists that it will do nothing to help the economy, and despite concerns that it’s nothing more than an aggregate of the spending wish lists of Washington Democrats, saved up for decades. And while Congressional leaders are going full steam ahead, some House Democrats are starting say publicly what others have been saying privately for weeks: this debt spending package is not going to solve the problem, and it may actually work against needed legislation in the future. Pete DeFazio told the Washington Post that additional legislation will likely be needed, and worried that “after this initial rush . . . a lot of people are going to begin to wonder about whether we’re pushing the limits of our borrowing capacity here.” Paul Kanjorski says he’ll probably vote against the bill, and that more bailouts will be necessary. To what is Kanjorski referring? Perhaps to the growing interest of Democrats in a TARP II, which seems necessary if there is going to be a new ‘Bad Bank‘:
At his confirmation hearing, Geithner talked about a need for $3-$4 trillion in order to take all the ‘toxic assets’ off the books of America’s banks. We’ll soon learn how much additional money the Obama administration believes is necessary to do this — trillions of dollars, or something less. However, whenever the announcement comes it is likely to dramatically change the current stimulus debate.
