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Obamas Stimulus Bill - The Fine Print
By Joel Skousen
Editor - World Affairs Brief
1-30-9
With news this week that Boeing, Home Depot, Caterpillar, Sprint,
and several other major corporations were laying off thousands
(the totals for January will top 150,000), it is easy, if not
seemingly imperative, for populist politicians to jump on the
bailout bandwagon. So, far the bailouts aren't working--unless
you consider bailing out the nation's wealthiest and best connected
insiders as the actual purpose of these programs. Each new bailout
simply begets another round of bailouts as every sector of the
economy takes its turn at the government trough. The adjusted
monetary base, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank
has DOUBLED since the bailouts began. That means the value of
every dollar in your pocket has essentially been cut in half
even if that hasn't yet been reflected in retail prices. It will
in time. This is the insidious and hidden inflation tax that
always accompanies government deficit spending. Jobless claims
have hit a 26-year high and states like Nevada have begun using
deliberate delaying tactics to save money by making it hard,
if not impossible, for the unemployed to file for unemployment
benefits. This is a national scandal in the making.
The unemployed in Las Vegas complain that they can't get through
on jammed telephone lines to the unemployment office--which,
ironically, refuses to deal with anyone in person. Now THAT is
a very suspicious policy position, leaving people absolutely
no options other than going back to the overloaded phone application
system. They must file by phone, and the state has obviously
refused to increase either the number of lines available or the
number of operators to properly service this avalanche of calls.
Nobody knows why and officials are virtually silent. When people
finally do get through (typically 5 hours of constant dialing
and redialing-- only to discover they must hold for a few more
hours), they find they don't get benefits for lost weeks trying
to get into the system. Tough luck!
Over a week ago, I emailed the director of the Nevada Workman's
Compensation system in Southern Nevada to find out why the state
has failed to allow timely application, failed to expand the
automated system, and refused to allow people to appear in person.
I got no reply at all. At least I can surmise that they treat
everyone equally bad, even journalists. This kind of bureaucratic
arrogance is reminiscent of the old Soviet system. This also
looks like grounds for a class action lawsuit.
As unemployment rises and the negative spending multiplier
continues to shrink the economy, all government wants to do is
inflate the currency and/or try to spend its way out of recession.
Take a look at the vertical rise in the adjusted monetary base
figures put out by the St. Louis Federal Reserve bank: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/fredgraph?chart_type=line&w'=
idth=1000&height=600&preserve_ratio=true&s[1][id]=AMBNS
As we are seeing, even that is too little, too late. No matter
how many billions the PTB throw at the problem, each month the
worsening figures accelerate. Even the appointment of Timothy
Geithner to be Treasury Secretary is an affirmation of more of
the same rather than change. As World Net Daily pointed out,
Geithner, as head of the NY Federal Reserve bank, presided over
all of the worst financial debacles of the last year. He was
part of the problem.
Only Ron Paul of Texas has taken on the evils of Obama's stimulus
package head on. He not only decries the entire bailout concept,
but points out how the actual bill is full of bad provisions
trying to hitch a ride on the stimulus wagon.
"This bill is just an escalation of a government-created
economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom
is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with
minimal debate. So much for change. We are again being promised
that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help
the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time
around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything
of this magnitude without first reading the fine print."
Congressman Paul presented an abbreviated list of the additions
to this bill, to which I have added a more complete list courtesy
of one of my subscribers. It all adds up to a lot of "pork."
$30 billion to subsidize health insurance for those who lose
their jobs
$15 billion to increase college Pell Grants
$500 tax credits for people who earn less than $75,000
$1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned
a profit in 40 years
$2 billion for child-care subsidies
$50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National
Endowment for the Arts;
$400 million for global-warming research
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects.
$650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay
for digital TV conversion coupons
$30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is
for fixing bridges or other highway projects
$40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports
and clean water projects
$20 billion for business tax cuts
$252 billion is for income-transfer payments -- that is, cash
or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all.
$81 billion for Medicaid
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for food stamps
$83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don't
pay income tax
$54 billion will go to federal programs that the Office of Management
and Budget or the Government Accountability Office have already
criticized as 'ineffective' or unable to pass basic financial
audits (includes Economic Development Administration, the Small
Business Administration, the 10 federal job training programs,
and many more.)
$66 billion more for education (including $335 million for education
related to sexually transmitted diseases)
$4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the
war on through Byrne grants and the COPS program, both of which
are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.
$20 billion would go towards health information technology, which
would create a national system of electronic medical records
without adequate privacy protection (These records would instead
be subject to the misnamed federal 'medical privacy' rule, which
allows government and state-favored special interests to see
medical records at will)
$250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual
student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding
privacy
$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their
budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut
back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.
$200 million expands Americorps
$100 million goes to 'faith-and-community' based organizations
for social services, which will further insinuate the government
into charity and community service.
$4 billion for job training
$200 million to 'encourage' electric cars
$2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries
and battery systems
$500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration
projects
$50 million for the National Cemetery Administration's monument
and memorial repairs
$2 billion for child-care subsidies
$100 million for reducing the danger of lead paint in homes
$50 million for NASA facilities that may have been harmed by
natural disaster
$200 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor earthquakes
and volcanoes
$70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for 'research
in potentially revolutionary technologies' -- government will
pick winners and losers
$746 million for after school snacks
$6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion
for a census.
"This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700
to every American man, woman and child. There is a lot of stimulus
and growth in this bill - that is, of government. Nothing in
this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American
people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as
market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress
should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending,
and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve."
THE RON PAUL SOLUTION:
"Here's what we HAVE to do to solve the problem," says
Paul: "1) Let banks and companies fail if they cannot survive
on their own 2) Stop inflating asset prices with government purchases
and bailouts 3) End the Trillion dollar annual spending to maintain
the US Global Empire 4) Bring all our troops and assets home
from around the world 5) End the fractional Federal Reserve banking
system that caused the hyper asset inflation through pyramid
debt 6) Have the US Treasury take charge of our monetary system
and create a non debt based system.
Former Asst. Sec. of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts (one
of the few who has bucked the system) agrees with this in general
when he writes, "The trillions of dollars in credit default
swaps (CDS) should be declared null and void. These 'swaps' are
simply bets that financial instruments and companies will fail,
and the bulk of the bets are made by people and institutions
that do not hold the financial instruments or shares in the companies...
There is no reason under the sun for taxpayers to bail out gamblers...
"To preserve the dollar's status as reserve currency, a
credible policy of reducing both budget and trade deficits must
be announced. In the near term the budget deficit can be reduced
by $500 billion by withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan and
by cutting a bloated defense budget that represents the now unattainable
goal of US world hegemony. The trade deficit can be significantly
reduced by bringing off shored jobs back to America [can't be
done without a wholesale changing of the labor, environment and
tax regulations that drive companies overseas (as much as lower
labor costs].
"This approach to the economic crisis stands in marked
contrast with the approach of the gangsters running US economic
policy. The gangsters are using the crisis as an opportunity
to steal from taxpayers and to finance their misdeeds and exorbitant
salaries with Federal Reserve loans. Their shills among economists
and the financial press tell the people that the solution is
to fatten up the banks with funds so they will resume lending
to an over-indebted public that will then return to the shopping
malls. This unrealistic approach to a serious crisis indicates
a leadership crisis on top of an economic crisis." It's
not a leadership crisis in terms of lack of understanding or
lack of competence. This is a conspiracy of greed and power.
A little review of the nature of this conspiracy is in order.
World Affairs Brief = Commentary and Insights on a Troubled
World
Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted.
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