George Rebane
The Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 aka the $787B stimulus package will reverberate through our wallets for a very long time to come. In discussing its impact on the country and our lives, I will refer to it simply as SP787 to distinguish it from TARP and the various SPxxx monstrosities that are sure to follow. Note, dear Reader, that I have included only three xs in that otherwise generalized label in hopes that the follow on stimulus packages don’t individually reach into the trillions, but should the need arise … .
SP787 will be theatrically signed into law in Denver tomorrow, and it needs all the theater the Democrats can muster. We must never waver in the inculcated belief that this “reinvestment” will indeed lead to a “recovery”. Nay, SP787 will be absolutely necessary in order to avoid another Great Depression or some other ‘fate vois dan death’ (Yiddish accent understood). The Big O’s gloom and doom admonitions are becoming a celebrated legend in their own time (here).
And very cleverly, the Democrats have this program to stimulate the expansion of government down cold. All outcomes will support the wisdom of SP787, and its future siblings, as the absolute correct thing to do. With the help of millions of ‘invisible hands’, the economy has several built-in self-righting mechanisms. Government, of course, can hinder these, but sooner or later we can expect things to get better. The progressives will then sing the ‘See, We Told You’ chorus (set to Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’), and come out smelling like a rose in the eyes of those forever facing Washington for solutions and sustenance.
Should the recession drag on or deepen, not to worry, they have that covered with ‘we were handed a much worse situation by Republicans than anyone could anticipate, and it’s going to take much more stimulus to get the economy rolling again.’ This will be followed by more SPs in various denominations, until the triumphant chorus can finally be cued up.
The careful reader will already have come to the conclusion that this will be the basis for the ‘Democrats Forever’ strategy, and the various SPs will be seen as the enabling legislation making it all possible. The final outcome of this is can be gleened from Norman Thomas, the perennial socialist presidential candidate of the last century, who said during WW2 –
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. … I no longer need to run as a presidential candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform.”
But getting back to SP787. The most trustworthy testimony to the claim that governments pilfer, waste, and misuse our tax dollars comes from the insiders, from people with deep knowledge of how the game is really played. Today’s best example is that city majors are now contacting the feds directly for their share of the bailout funds. All of them have overspent and are suffering from deficits seen and unseen (e.g. unfunded liabilities). They want the stimulus bucks to come directly into their eager little hands, bypassing those colleagues of doubtful parentage in the state houses.
Over the weekend CNN aired Exhibit A of this when it interviewed Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. Hizzoner made it very plain that LA is big, has a lot of money problems, and knows exactly where to inject the stimulus. He does not trust The Arnold to get it right for California, and the last thing he wants to do is strap on his knee-pads and beg for bucks in Sacramento. So he is appealing that the feds cut out the middle man who just adds shipping and handling charges. Good thinking, especially when considered on a grander scale.
rebanesruminations.com 
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