everythingyoucouldwant

            “I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.” This is what Barack Obama said to encourage Democrats to pass the stimulus plan quickly. So this makes me wonder, how will creating more of the problem get us out of it in the first place? If the national debt is what got us here in the worst economic situation since the Great Depression, how will pilling on more debt get us back on track? I believe it will not. It is just not logical, and 200 or so economists agree with the fact that it is absurd to believe that more spending will pull us out of this mess. In the petition it mentions, the Great Depression and Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990’s. In both of these instances Government spending did not bail out each market. Instead, government reforms did, and that is exactly what the petion says is needed. These economists say that instead of the government overloading on spending, why not lower taxes and therefore lowering the “burden” on the government. They say that these are “the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.” Now, clearly I do not agree with the stimulus package as a whole, and I certainly disagree with where the money is going. First of all, the spending over time is absolutely outrageous. According to the Washington Post, in 2010 the spending will rise to 236.4 billion dollars, and they also say that in the first nineteen months, sixty-four percent of the money will be spent. This even falls short of the governments goal of spending seventy-five percent by September 30th, 2010. So, how does the government expect a following on something that will fail by more then ten percent. With all of that aside as I look into the spending breakdown I am most upset with the agriculture, nutrition, and rural development portion. 26.4 billion dollars will go towards, food stamps, expanding the boradband in rural areas, and rural development. Now, here is what really strikes me as ridiculous, 2+ billion dollars on the expansion of broadband in rural areas. Why in a time of economic crisis would rural areas need broadband? This would be last on my list, if it would have even made my list for things to spend money on.  20+ billion on foodstamps is also a bit insane considering that the old food stamp budget was just fine. Why fix something that isn’t broken? As for rural development, why don’t you let the people in rural areas worry about themselves? These are the last things that are needed and yet they are recieving 26.4 billion dollars. My overal take on all of this is that a market must start somewhere, and you have to find the floor before you can stand. So I think the government should have just left the market the way it was and let it find itself, because all they are doing now is creating more inflation.

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