Today in Washington D. C. - Jan 26, 2009

Update (6:10 pm): Geithner confirmed by 60-34 vote .
Senate reconvenes at 2 pm today. At 4 pm it is scheduled to begin debate on the nomination of Timothy Geithner to be Treasury Secretary with a vote expected around 6 pm. Following the vote on Geithner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to move to the SCHIP expansion bill (H.R. 2). It appears that many republican senators are "talking the talk" but are not "walking the walk" and will most likely vote for confirmation. The same can be said for any democrat that has cried foul about anyone who has not but "might have" violated the law. Geithner knowing violated the income tax law even after having been advised otherwise and now appears to be the person that both Pres. Obama and Democrats in Congress want to be in charge of the IRS and the Treasury. What a great motivator for the rest of us and the banks to follow the law. But then again, Geithner will now have evidence his overcoming his personal lack of principles by forcing the rest of America to follow the laws he broke. Someone wake me up from this horrible dream - wishful thinking but could enough Senators serve the American people instead of Washington and Obama's political interests and vote "no" on this confirmation. A special thank you to Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) for clearly defining why no one should vote for the confirmation of Geithner.

As the Democrats’ massive $825 billion economic stimulus bill continues to be considered in congressional committees, several prominent newspapers are questioning the concepts behind the bill and the dubious spending Democrats are stuffing it with.

In an editorial today, The Wall Street Journal dubs the bill “a time machine” because “[t]hat may be the only way to explain how spending on public works in 2011 and beyond will help the economy today.” The Journal reminds readers of last week’s CBO report, which found that “a mere $26 billion of the House stimulus bill’s $355 billion in new spending would actually be spent in the current fiscal year, and just $110 billion would be spent by the end of 2010.” Of course, the inconvenient report was quickly removed from the House Appropriations Committee website, according to the WSJ.

Other newspapers note the grab bag of spending projects in the bill and wonder how they’re supposed to create jobs. USA Today asks, “[H]ow does adding $2.1 billion to let 110,000 more kids participate in Head Start jump-start economic activity? Or devoting $150 million to aviation safety research or $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts?”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hometown paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, writes, “congressional Democrats are showing no remorse in larding up the $825 billion bill with $50 million in arts subsidies, $200 million for teacher bonuses and a whopping $15.6 billion worth of Pell Grants for college students.” The Review-Journal also wonders, “[H]ow does all this jolt the economy? How does this create the jobs needed to support a recovery?”

The Washington Post wrote yesterday, “For sheer irrationality, it would be hard to top the $4.19 billion the bill would give to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, on top of $4 billion authorized last year. This program gives local governments money to buy and rehabilitate homes that have been foreclosed on -- thus giving lenders an incentive to foreclose on more houses.” Despite all this, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday “boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic ‘stimulus’ package, claiming ‘contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government,’” according to Drudge.

The Wall Street Journal nicely sums up one of the key problems with the stimulus bill: “The spending portion of the stimulus, in short, isn’t really about the economy. It’s about promoting long-time Democratic policy goals, such as subsidizing health care for the middle class and promoting alternative energy. The ‘stimulus’ is merely the mother of all political excuses to pack as much of this spending agenda as possible into a single bill when Mr. Obama is at his political zenith.”

---

Tags: Jim Bunning, Nancy Pelosi, Tim Geither, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!