The 'trouble' with the stimulus bill

February 4, 12:22 PMProgressive Politics ExaminerJay McDonough

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As the battle inside and outside Congress continues over the economic stimulus package, one thing has been constant.  Republican spokespersons have been appearing regularly on cable news decrying the cost of the bill and ridiculing the distribution of funding to programs they deem either unworthy of government funds or programs they argue will not have a stimulative effect on the economy.  Usually singled out are funds that were to be provided to health and family planning services, the National Endowment of the Arts, and smoking cessation programs.  Consistently referring to the bill as "pork laden", the intent is to influence public opinion the bill is nothing more than a Democrats fantasy.

If the stimulus bill includes programs that are either extravagant or non-stimulative, those ought to be dumped.  Now, attempts have been made by selected GOP Congressional members to specify what programs, exactly, they believe are wasteful.  It seems it those cases, the call for specificity has challenged the GOP to provide much of a list.  So Monday evening the Republican Congressional leaders provided their comprehensive list of stimulus bill projects the GOP deems wasteful.  The full list is here.  Here are some examples:

-   $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.

-  A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

-   $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

-   $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

-   $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.

Look, I suppose some of this is a judgement call.  One can make the case that $246M in tax breaks to Hollywood producers doesn't belong in a big economic stimulus package, but there's undoubtedly someone out there who will argue that even those tax breaks are stimulative; they allow more movies to be made, which in turn allow more movie making people to be employed, which in turn allow more businesses that support the movie making business, which in turn allow more theater owners to stay in business and keep their employees - you get the picture (no pun intended).

But, adding up the Republicans total list of programs they believe are objectionable comes to $19.1B.  No one would argue that's not a big pile of dough.  But the total stimulus bill price tag is up around $819B.  And those parts of the bill the GOP find so objectionable, after all that scrubbing the bill for every dollar they believe would be misspent, is 2.3% of the total package.

The Republicans, no doubt, recognize they're not going to be able to fight the bill with arguments that Americans should trust their judgment when it comes to managing the economy.  They have zero credibility in that regard.  But the argument the bill is loaded full of objectionable expenditures is clearly disingenuous when all they can come up with is a little over 2% of the total.

The debate over the stimulus bill should be about the amount (enough to be effective, not so much as to be wasteful), when the money is spent (it should be a short term investment), the ratio of the split between tax cuts and spending, and even what programs get funded.

But to go on cable news day after day and assert the stimulus bill is a piece of crap because 2% of the total is objectionable is just dishonest and more about political gamesmanship than the health of the economy.