STIMULUS PACKAGE, II

I continue to be unimpressed with the stimulus (pork) package. The front page of the January 29th Dallas Morning News had a graph with where the allocations were going. I didn't see a lot of "stimulus." And then I read this:

Only ten per cent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009.

Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ or both members of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions, or other Democrat-controlled unions.

This bill is sent to Congress after Obama has been in office for seven days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously, it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for President Obama to have read the entire bill.

For the amount spent we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.

We could give every person who had lost a job and is now passing through long-term unemployment of six months or longer roughly $300,000.

I think the $75,000 to every unemployed person would be much more effective in generating demand. But even the German plan of giving $3,000 to everyone who buys a new car would do more good than just giving corporations or unions money.

This DMN editorial stresses the stimulus should focus on what the present--what can be spent now.