It is no mystery at this point that our economy is faltering. Our government, in an attempt to stabilize it, has been passing bailouts and even has started to think about nationalization of certain industries. Yet its latest attempt, with the $787 billion pork (sorry, stimulus) bill, is a bit lackluster. In fact, this bill is going to do all harm, and probably bring about a shortage of bacon from all the pork in it.
Besides the obvious fact that the $787 billion does nothing but dump an extra $787 billion tax burden on us, let’s just ignore that little fact for now to look at some of the details. Now, the purpose of this bill is to stimulate the economy, correct? Then someone, either President Barack Obama, Senator Harry Reid, or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, needs to explain to the American people why over 35 percent of it has absolutely nothing to do with the economy. Somehow, I fail to see how updating the computers at the farm agency is going to help the economy. This pork bill is essentially nothing more than an excuse for representatives in government to go on a spending spree.
Besides the pork, this bill is leading us closer and closer to becoming Soviet America. Ideas such as the nationalization of banks have only made socialism that much closer. And even General Motors, which is getting bailout cash for making bad business moves (just like the other bailout recipients), is now essentially under government control, being forced to cancel its performance division as a result of accepting bailout money. It may seem like they should do this regardless to save cash, but the government shouldn’t tell them. Their sales should tell them what to do, and, quite frankly, their performance division wasn’t the hole in their wallet.
And as Wall Street plummets when hearing the word stimulus, our representatives in government seem to not take the hint, and instead continue the course (reminds me of a president that everyone mocked for this plan). It is painfully obvious that direct government manipulation in the economy is only making the situation worse. It cannot continue to show everyone that it will come to the rescue if you made a bad decision, at the expense of those who made the right decision. But the worst thought of all is, how is the $10 trillion (and rising) debt going to be paid off? The tax payers are already busy bailing others out; it cannot take that additional load without catastrophic results.
Editor’s Note: The College Republicans, the College Libertarians, and the Progressive Students Alliance rotate a column on a triweekly basis.
