The Senate passed the Democrats’ $838 billion “economic stimulus” bill today! It now heads for conference committee with the US House which will be run by Democrat lawmakers from both chambers. Americans would be well-advised to keep their eyes on it, as this bill has had a tendency to grow every time one looks away.In fact, the germ of this bill came from Democrat proposals back in September for a $56 billion stimulus in the Senate and a $61 billion stimulus in the House. Since then, the size and scope of the proposal increased regularly until the Democrat-run House passed an $819 billion bill. In the Senate, the bill grew past $900 billion until last week’s compromise brought the price tag down slightly. But even then, the cost continued to grow from what was initially reported as a $780 billion compromise. That number soon became $827 billion, and Americans recently learned that CBO calculates that the compromise costs $838 billion.
The purpose is to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions, but apparently Democrats just can’t help themselves, and are already discussing adding back money that was cut from the bill in the Senate. According to Roll Call, “Democrats have apparently decided to test their luck by trying to restore much of the education money they gave up in order to secure those Republican votes [needed to pass the bill].” Not only that, “Even President Barack Obama appears interested in restoring some of the cuts he pushed Senate Democrats to accept, if you believe his chief economic adviser, Larry Summers.” And CongressDaily notes, “House Democratic leaders continue to bristle at the Senate compromise. Over the weekend, Pelosi raised concerns about the cut to the state fiscal stabilization fund. Sources in a closed-door Democratic leadership meeting Monday evening said that members remain generally angry about the cuts.”
So it appears Democrats are looking to add even more to this bill, yet have little concern for the myriad pet projects and dubious spending provisions. Yesterday, it was revealed that the latest version of the bill includes $300 million for federal employee company cars, a $3 million tax benefit for golf carts, electric motorcycles and ATVs, and $1.652 billion for government facilities and renovations. Sen. Tom Coburn identified even more line items in the bill that don’t appear to belong in legislation designed to stimulus the economy. But Democrats simply roll their eyes when this is pointed out. Indeed, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor this morning, “And let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments, the American people really don’t care.”
Unfortunately, this is just a tidbit of what the administration has in store over the next few months. On the threshold of an unprecedented $1.3 trillion stimulus, the President is moving forward with "phase two" of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), created to rescue Wall Street. In TARP 2, the Treasury Department has floated the possibility of spending up to $150 billion in new bank bailouts, shortly before the springtime omnibus, which is rumored to cost another $500 billion.
Tags: Congressional Pork, deficit spending, Democrats, economic stimulus, government waste, National Debt, 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!
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