The Stimulus Bill/Spending Package

At the outset, I would like to point out that during the debates and before the election, President Obama stated that he would like "a $175 billion plan with tax-rebate checks for consumers as well as spending on school repairs, roads and bridges, aid to states, and tax credits for job creation.” Now this "plan" has become a huge spending extravaganza--we are not getting tax-rebate checks, tax credits are going down, and money is being spent on a whole bunch of things that don't have anything to do with getting the economy going or job creation. I have been waiting a long time to write this. I get angrier every day that I hear what money is being spent on and hear the price tag go up.

I went online to read the Bill. Of course you have to wade through a lot of S_ _t to get to any substance. but I did notice a few puzzling spending proposals. One spending item was to help out places that had been flooded and get them back in to better, usable condition (presumably so stupid people can build there again). I don't see economic stimulus or job creation. (Maybe a few jobs temporarily.) Sean Hannity also noticed spending on fish hatcheries (and I looked it up). Job creation? Economic stimulus? I think NOT!! Oh, and here is Aunt Pelosi's little "earmark":
"Lawmakers and administration officials divulged Wednesday that the $789 billion economic stimulus bill being finalized behind closed doors in Congress includes $30 million for wetlands restoration that the Obama administration intends to spend in the San Francisco Bay Area to protect, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi represents the city of San Francisco and has previously championed preserving the mouse's habitat in the Bay Area." This is from S.A. Miller in the Washington Times.

Every day that goes by I grow more leary of President Obama. He seems very slick--he will slide through any lie or exaggeration. I would like to make a note of his stance on earmarks. He stated that they need to be eliminated, that "we're going to ban all earmarks." However, he has not eliminated or asked for elimination of any earmark in this bill and it is going to kill us as taxpayers. In fact, he has become quite sharp in his tone and is making very pointed remarks about who won in November. . . Charles Babington, an Associated Press writer noted: "Stopping just short of a take-it-or-leave-it stand, Obama has mocked the notion that a stimulus bill shouldn't include huge spending. He's also defended earmarks as inevitable in such a package. And he's pointedly reminded Republicans about who won the November election." The President had this to say: "So then you get the argument, 'well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.' What do you think a stimulus is?" Every day I see more power being wielded by the President, saying, I was elected, I have the power. I am sick in my stomach over the attitude of the President and members of Congress who are claiming the right to do this because they were elected. And I am also sick in my stomach over the high price tag on this bill. It will come back to haunt us.

If anyone has any questions over what the founding fathers would have to say, they would be horrified. They never intended for the federal government to be this involved in our lives. They never intended for the federal government to spend this kind of money on things other than war. They intended for the states to govern themselves and for the federal government to smooth the way for states to interact.