Stimulating Waste

IBD Editorials ^ | January 28, 2009

[Kaslin]

Stimulus: The dirty little secret of the House bill is that almost all the stimulus this year, when it's needed most, comes in the form of tax cuts and payments to individuals and almost none from new discretionary spending.

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Until now, the focus of criticism of the stimulus package has been on how the new discretionary funds are spent. And, sure, it is a bit of a mystery how tossing out $200 million to refurbish the National Mall or $500 million for arts, $400 million for a new Social Security Administration computer system, and so on, will stimulate the economy.

To get a true sense of the scale of wasted money in the House stimulus package, consider this: If you stripped out all the $365 billion in new discretionary spending included in the bill, it would have almost no effect on the bill's stimulus effect this year — which is presumably when the stimulus is needed most.

According to the Congressional Budget Office review of the package, 82% of the stimulus in 2009 and nearly 70% in 2010 come from tax cuts and direct spending to individuals. In contrast, most of the $365 billion in new discretionary spending won't kick in until after 2010. (The table alongside shows where the money goes each year.)

The Obama administration has pointed to this CBO report as evidence that the package is essentially sound, since two-thirds of the money gets dispersed in the first two years — close enough, administration officials say, to the 75% Obama had targeted.

[Kimberly GG]

Now, now...let’s not focus on the 1/10th of the third of the one percent of the 99.99 percent of the GOOD.

or something like that.

[jveritas]

I am bit confused by this article.

[Salvation]

From grassfire email

$2.4 billion carbon capture products...

$4.19 billion for ACORN and other bogus “community organizing” groups...

$650 million digital tv conversion...

$79 billion to bail out the state education system...

Hundreds of millions for family planning...

$400 million global warming research...

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts...

$200 million to refurbish the National Mall...

And the bill is not even a stimulus! Just 1% of the so-called stimulus is for tax cuts for small businesses. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, two thirds of the stimulus will not even be spent for nearly two years!