The Congress is in recess but could return for a lame duck session beginning December 8th. However, Democrats, over the weekend, upped the ante again on a potential stimulus package. In October, the Democrat-controlled House passed a $61 billion spending package, but over the course of a month there were calls to increase that number to between $150 and $300 billion.The Washington Post reports, “President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats are rapidly ratcheting up plans for a massive fiscal stimulus program that could total as much as $700 billion over the next two years. . . . New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D), an Obama adviser, and Harvard economist Lawrence H. Summers, whom Obama has chosen to lead his White House economic team, both raised the possibility of $700 billion in new spending. Yesterday, Obama adviser and former Clinton administration Labor secretary Robert Reich and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) also called for spending in the range of $500 billion to $700 billion.”
The Post also notes some concerns with such a huge spending proposal: “There are downsides to such a dramatic increase in government spending, especially at a time when the annual federal budget deficit already is spiraling toward $1 trillion -- about 7 percent of the gross domestic product -- a level not seen since the end of World War II. Increasing the deficit means increasing the national debt, which eventually will have to be repaid, with interest, to largely foreign creditors. It also means the nation will be even less prepared to cover the skyrocketing costs of Medicare and Social Security as the baby boomer generation retires.”
It appears that Democrats are taking Obama’s advice when he said on 60 Minutes recently, “And (consensus is) that we shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after . . . .” At some point, though, Democrats and the Obama team are going to need to consider our financial situation when calling for massive spending programs.
Friday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell held a press conference and warned Senate Democrats that Republicans expect to be allowed to amend legislation and will stand together to protect their rights to do so. According to Roll Call, “McConnell released a letter signed by the entire GOP Conference to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) calling on him to use a more open process for advancing legislation in the 111th, a clear warning to Reid that Republicans will be looking to stand together over the next two years. . . . The 42 Republican Senators represent 157 million Americans. Their voices are entitled to be heard, and the way to be heard in the Senate is an open amendment process,’ a clearly rejuvenated McConnell told reporters.” Sen. McConnell also noted, “After the ‘04 election, one Democratic senator said, and I quote, ‘What gets in the way of an American dictator is the funny thing we call the Constitution. And the Senate is set up so that the minority has tremendous power, and we want to work with the president.’ That Democrat was Harry Reid.”
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