Stone Pigs

undeniable underlying truths

Pennies from Heaven

Posted By on January 28, 2009

With great fanfare, President Obama had tonight what was described by the Associated Press as a political ‘win’ in the form of House passage of an $819 billion economic ‘stimulus’ package.  Wow!  That’s some package!  Might even be bigger than Al Gore’s legendary package.  Oooh, I’m feeling very stimulated just now.  Please excuse me for a moment …

I confess that I don’t understand why this should be thought of as a win for Obama … or why any piece of legislation would be a win for him.  He’s got clear majorities of Democrats in both houses of Congress and needs no Republicans to support anything he wants to do.  So, for him to register a win in anything, it would have to be a win over Democrat opposition.  Is the AP implying that there was significant opposition from the Democrats?  Indeed 11 Democrat House members voted ‘nay’ but that’s nothing more than token opposition.

So really, this win is akin to the Boston Red Sox beating the local Little Leaguers.  Good job Mr. Obama.  Do you feel better now?

The AP described the legislation’s provision for “a $500 break for single workers and $1,000 for couples, including those who don’t earn enough to owe federal income taxes” as the “centerpiece tax cut.”

Given the current backdrop of derisive commentary from many liberal talk radio hosts aimed at the $300/person stimulus package that Bush signed last year, I’m stunned by the AP’s flowery treatment of this centerpiece.  $300 in a single lump sum payment to individuals wasn’t good enough coming from Bush, but now a I’m supposed to believe that a $500 boost in the form of reduced payroll taxes spread out over the course of a year from Obama is going to provide some kind of shot in the arm for the economy?  Is $10/week really that much more substantive?

Please don’t insult my intelligence like that.  I find this kind of hyperbole from the press to be rather irresponsible at the very least and certainly lacking proper perspective.

And I don’t even want to get into the lunacy of what it means to provide a “tax cut” to people who aren’t paying any federal income tax in the first place.

Yes, you can chalk this up in the win column for “the Bamster” (rhymes with hamster) but I can’t imagine there is anyone who seriously thinks that we’ll be tallying anything in the loss column for at least the next two years as long as he’s got Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid sycophanticly covering his backside around the Beltway.

Many happy returns.


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