President-elect Barack Obama meets today with Democratic congressional leaders to discuss their forthcoming economic stimulus package. On Wednesday a Democrats-only committee hearing will convene to push for congressional action before Obama’s January 20 inauguration. Thus advances a sham economic stimulus bill via a sham legislative process.
Regardless whether the final version spends $750 billion or some figure north of $1 trillion, the measure will be an economic sham. First, if the bill is paid with a blizzard of freshly printed greenbacks, it will invariably lead to galloping inflation, which, of course, destroys everybody’s wealth.
If the funds are borrowed, the government will not only be setting the stage for inflation, but it will also be increasing the national debt and constricting credit. Second, as multiple studies have shown, government spending has little stimulative value. One of those studies was done by Obama’s new chief economic advisor, Christina Romer of UC Berkeley, who found $3 in increased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for every $1 in tax cuts. Increased spending generates at best a mere 40 cents of GDP growth on the dollar. Third, that 40 cents actually goes to special interests like labor unions, politically influential contractors in favored industries and state and local political allies of the party in power. Odds are Obama will eventually rue the day he signed off on this sham.
Then there is sham legislative process being used by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ramrod the measure through the 111th Congress, with its strengthened Democratic majorities in both chambers.
The stimulus package will be the focus of a Wednesday hearing of the House Steering and Policy Committee, co-chaired by Rep. George Miller, D-CA, and Rosa DeLauro, D-CN. This all-Democrat panel has no legislative authority but will hear from witnesses who will mostly extol government spending.
The hearing will also be a focal point for the plague of special interests who have been lobbying for weeks to get a piece of the pie. Officially, Pelosi says “this hearing will build upon the stimulus package the House passed in September and the numerous hearings held by our other committees.”
She adds that “our economy demands Congress act quickly to pass at the earliest date an economic recovery plan to provide immediate relief to Americans and to create or save millions of American jobs.” In other words, forget the too-slow normal legislative process which includes Republicans. If speed is the issue, why not just let Pelosi issue an economic stimulus edict and be done with those pesky elections for good? After all, if it’s good by Pelosi, it’s good for America, right?
