I resolved to read President Obama's stimulus package, AKA the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, AKA HR1. Then I discovered its girth: 647 pages. I have read the Bible, but I'll pass on Obama's salvation-dispensing tome. When the Bush administration wanted to keep the American people in the dark regarding their banker-bailout bill, their modus operandi involved submitting a three-page bill that esentially said you give $700 billion and we'll spend it how we see fit. The Obama administration's modus operandi in obfuscating their designs involves submitting a bill so mammoth that no regular citizen will ever bother to read it. And should some Joe Six-Pack read the bill, last-minute amendments will ensure that the monstrosity he reads won't be the monstrosity that becomes law. And guess what? If 647-pages sounds too voluminous for you, it probably is for the average congressman, who, is you might have deducted, is quite average.

I read the WSJ the other day (here), saying that only 26 billion of the environmental--er "stimulus"--package would be spent in the current fiscal year. That's 7%.

Obama said today that the American people demand action, as an apology for brushing off GOP calls for restraint, after the show of meeting with Republican leaders.

7% action!! I think that's what the American people have in mind. Can't let a perfectly good crisis go to waste...

I'd like to know who the Americans are who are breaking down the doors for this economic "relief" spending package. The only things I ever hear from anybody, including liberals, range from skepticism to rejection of this abomination that we can't afford.

If this thing is so crucial to our economy, why is it that only 7-10% of it will be spent this year with the bulk of it allocated in the year before the next Presidential cycle?

Is it really going to help the economy if ACORN gets $4 Billion that this pork bill provides for or if the government replaces all of their ground fleet with $600 Million in "green" vehicles or the U.S. military receives millions to insure work environments are more environmentally friendly? Those are just a few of the many unnecessary items contained in the 647 pages, I'm sure.

Let's call this what it is: the Democrat Pork and Partisan Project Spending Bill of 2009. And it won't kick start the economy, it will deep six it.

Always a good barometer to determine a wasteful boondoggle, if cartoon character Barney Frank is for it, it can't be good for us. He is and it isn't!

Private debt and business debt are our great problem. Is it really sensible to anyone to grossly increase public debt to solve this? Isn't that the mindset that got us here? There must be some tipping points with the national debt and deficit beyond which lie devastation. Do we want to propel ourselves there with this unstimulating stimulus, an unveiled piece of pork designed to intoxicate the worst kind of voters.

'President-elect Barack Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, spoke of the Era of Reform, offering few details but working to shape the narrative of the next administration. He said the current economic crisis offers opportunities for change that wouldn't have otherwise been possible. "Never let a serious crisis go to waste," he said.'

Perfect.

"There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable. It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy. It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy - where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit." - Obama speech, 1/8/9.

Government is the vicious cycle crippling our economy. They built regulations leading to subprime loans. The complex credit structures are efforts to make the most of bad regulation. Eliminating business taxes would be a boon to the economy, meaningful employment (as opposed to government make-work), and encouraging government to prune itself back to common defense and general welfare.

This is a grave time for America.

I'm a product of post WWII and have benefited greatly from the economic largesse and good will created by the Greatest Generation.

But we haven't done such a great job of maintaining that and I'm sorry for all of those who are now subject to Boomers who think that profligate spending and the 'good times rolling' will never end.

We are in a weird place here at the beginning of the 21st century and I'm sure that, as always, time will dictate that smarter and more responsible leaders will work us out of the mess we've currently created.

It still amazes and awes me that we have people running this great country who are either too obtuse to understand or who don't care about repeating historical failures and that they could care less that dooming us to failed policies of the past in the name of power and political ego is just fine.

This has all been planned out for many years. The elite have been waiting for a crisis to occur, an now the time is ripe for the picking. One has to only look at how things occurred in Nazi Germany before it became under the control of Hitler. Their economy fell apart as well. Hitler, devil that he was, did indeed bring their economy back from the brink of destruction. That is the only credit that one can give him. I would recommend reading a free ebook called Bailout to Bliss on www.podcastdoc.com/bailout.php for those who are interested.

Obama has too much control and that is the problem. His fear tactics and doomsday scenarios are beginning to make Busch/Paulson look like cute little puppies. Look at the "change" we got; more fear mongoring, more contempt for what Americans actually want(financial responsability and accountability) and the iceing on the cake a massive spending package even bigger than bailout #1.
having to watch these politicians saying they are "taking action" and providing "leadership" while ignoring common sense and burying future generations under mountains of debt is truly appalling. This pretensious snobs who have their lives and their kids lives paid for continue to plow the rest of America further into oblivion and are proud simply because they can say "look we took action, we're leading", actually you stupidly and egregiously done exactly what has lead us to the situation we are currently in except you have managed to take it to new heights of incompetence. "Um, you know this problem caused by easy credit, too much borrowing and spending, too little accountability, lets fix it by demanding stupendous amounts of money from the people who have already lost the most", simply amazing.
I feel sorry for the coming generations that didn't have a say in this, not that politicians are listening to anyone anyway.