The next stimulus bill

[driveby]

President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are publicly fretting about the dangers of spending and debt, which can mean only one thing: Another big spending "stimulus" bill is in the works. And sure enough, the House plans to vote this week on $190 billion in new spending, $134 billion of which it won't even pretend to pay for.

 

Sander Levin, the new Ways and Means Chairman, calls this exercise the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. Mr. Levin has waited 28 years to ascend to this throne and this is the best he can do? "Jobs" were also the justification in February 2009 for the $862 billion stimulus that has managed to hold the jobless rate down to a mere 9.9%. Maybe Mr. Levin's spending can hold it down to even greater heights.

 

The nearby table gives a flavor of what's in this grab bag of political payoffs, corporate welfare and transfer payments. There's $24 billion to help states pay the exploding tab for Medicaid, the same program that ObamaCare expands by some 16 million new recipients. The bill also offers $1 billion for summer jobs for teens, whose jobless rate is 25.4%. Congress could do far more to create teen jobs if it merely suspended last year's minimum wage increase to $7.25 an hour, which priced millions of young workers out of the labor market. But that would be too rational.

 

The biggest item is $65 billion to prevent a 21% cut in Medicare physician reimbursements. Democrats promised this to the American Medical Association in return for its ObamaCare support, but they left the $65 billion out of the health-care law to make it look less expensive. Now they're pushing it through under separate cover when they assume the press corps won't notice.

 

The $47 billion to extend unemployment insurance to nearly two full years will bring the total spent on this program to $137 billion during this recession—five times more than in either of the prior two recessions. That's nearly as much as the federal corporate income raised in 2009.

 

The sages in Congress continue to claim that these payments for not working will lead to more work. Representative Jim McDermott recently declared on the House floor that jobless payments are "one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus" because "every unemployment dollar spent returns $1.64 of economic benefits." So let's lay off everybody, pay them for not working, and watch the economy really boom. Where do they teach this stuff?

 

This bill is also one of the most expensive corporate welfare giveaways in recent years with subsidies for municipal bond traders, cotton farmers, yarn producers, sheep growers, Hawaiian sugar cane cooperatives, motor sports businesses, renewable energy firms, the steel lobby, and so on. Any industry that doesn't get a tax credit or other handout in this bill should fire its lobbyist.

 

All of this is "paid for," in the Beltway lingo, with a net tax increase on business of about $40 billion and at least $134 billion of new debt. There's a new 24 cent a barrel tax on oil companies, which would flow to consumers in higher gas prices, because Congress says the industry's profits are excessive.

 

U.S. multinational companies would pay a higher tax rate on their overseas income, which will not help them create more jobs here. The better way to discourage job outsourcing is to cut the corporate income tax rate, but Mr. Levin and his union allies will have none of that.

 

Managers of private equity and venture capital firms that provide the start-up and expansion funding to businesses would see their tax rate rise to as high as 35% from 15% today—a huge tax increase when businesses are starved for capital. And small, often family-owned Subchapter S companies that provide professional services would be required to subject more of their profits to the self-employment tax. These firms already pay up to 35% tax on these profits, so under the Democratic plan their tax rate could reach 50%.

 

Perhaps you're wondering what happened to the "pay as you go" budget rules that Mr. Obama announced to great media fanfare as recently as February. Democrats now say "paygo" doesn't apply because this spending qualifies as an "emergency." But while the new spending isn't paid for, Democrats are insisting that the bill's extension of the R&D tax credit and small business depreciation allowance must be offset by the tax increases.

 

Oh, and by the way, the President is unveiling a new line-item veto proposal this week to "rein in wasteful spending and hold Congress accountable," as Senator John Kerry put it yesterday in a press release. If any of them were remotely serious, they'd start by line-item vetoing this entire bill.

[Perchoutofwater]

Yeah! More f'n spending. Just what we frigging need. Idiots!

[bpwallace49]

 

I LOVE opinion articles!! Lets ask him who he likes in the NHL finals next!

[TimC]

Start killing the poor people...and then the old. Anyone over 46 years old should be put down.

[Perchoutofwater]

I LOVE opinion articles!! Lets ask him who he likes in the NHL finals next!

 

Do you dispute any of the statistics given in the "opinion" article, or any of the claims it makes? Or are you just becoming the typical liberal here, and just discounting the source?

[gbpfan1231]

Do you dispute any of the statistics given in the "opinion" article, or any of the claims it makes? Or are you just becoming the typical liberal here, and just discounting the source?

No responses from the left? - sure got quiet

[bpwallace49]

Do you dispute any of the statistics given in the "opinion" article, or any of the claims it makes? Or are you just becoming the typical liberal here, and just discounting the source?

 

Perch, wihout published links to sources, any specific numbers can be pulled out of the air.

 

That goes for ANY article that has "exact numbers". Until then, it is merely an opinion without published facts backing it up . .

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...item-veto-.html

[Perchoutofwater]

Perch, wihout published links to sources, any specific numbers can be pulled out of the air.

 

That goes for ANY article that has "exact numbers". Until then, it is merely an opinion without published facts backing it up . .

 

So from now on, anything you link to will be footnoted or we should just discount it right?

[driveby]

Team Obama Seeks $23 Billion for Teachers

 

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is asking lawmakers to put aside “politics and ideology” as they consider a request for $23 billion in “emergency” funding for public schools – a measure Republicans reject as a massive federal bailout for the teachers’ unions.

 

The Obama administration is supporting the bill, formally titled the Keep Our Educators Working Act and sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) dated May 13, Duncan warned that if the bill is not enacted, “millions” of school children will be adversely affected and the ensuing damage will “undermine the groundbreaking reform efforts underway in states and districts all across the country.”

.

 

They're not done yet.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Well, with massive cuts in funding for schools due to property taxes plummeting, isn't this at least one area we can agree on that federal dollars would be spent wisely? Why do you hate our kids?

[bpwallace49]

So from now on, anything you link to will be footnoted or we should just discount it right?

 

Perch, Op-eds are just that . . .opinion. You are getting your panties in a wad about an OPINION article.

 

If i posted a radical link with a blog that didnt list sources, would you question it? (I would hope so)

 

Sweet Jesus Perch . . . who cares whether or not ANYONE disagrees with an OPINION article? Any why should anyone be called upon to refute the OPINION of another?

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

Perch, Op-eds are just that . . .opinion. You are getting your panties in a wad about an OPINION article.

 

If i posted a radical link with a blog that didnt list sources, would you question it? (I would hope so)

 

Sweet Jesus Perch . . . who cares whether or not ANYONE disagrees with an OPINION article? Any why should anyone be called upon to refute the OPINION of another?

 

It's not like the Op-Ed came from a radical blog. It's from the Wall Street Journal. Oh wait, Rupert Murdoch DOES own it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I actually get the WSJ myself but don't really spend the time to read it. FF miles at their best use...

[driveby]

Well, with massive cuts in funding for schools due to property taxes plummeting, isn't this at least one area we can agree on that federal dollars would be spent wisely? Why do you hate our kids?

There is so much waste and unnecessary spending in school budgets it's criminal.

 

For instance, our school just got in 15 portable multi-media carts. Along with 15 pc's and monitors. 15 document cameras, 15 projectors and 15 mimeos.

 

These tricked out carts are supposed to be used by our inclusion teachers (special ed teachers who float into classrooms to lead small group instruction of students who in days past would have been receiving quality grade appropriate instruction in resource classrooms).

 

We do not have 15 inclusion teachers to start with, so most of these carts are already destined to collect dust. For the rest of the inclusion teachers I asked them how many want to push these carts through the packed hallways during class changes, then find an electrical outlet, run an ethernet cord, configure the document camera, projector and mimeo prior to starting their small group instruction in a room where instruction is already going on by the regular classroom teacher.

 

And guess how many regular teachers want this commotion going on in their room while they are trying to teach?

 

And since I suspect this is financed by federal special ed money, taking this equipment off the carts and using in in a more reasonable manner is prohibited.