With countless news stories, papers, editorials and experts giving their view of why Congress should or shouldn’t enact the Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt Plan, we thought it would be helpful to give you a short index of why spending does not equal stimulus.

HIGH COST TO AMERICAN TAXPAYERS

• After Congress appropriates the FY’09 omnibus bill, they may have spent over $1.4 Trillion in less than one month!
  The current “stimulus bill” will be the LARGEST SPENDING BILL EVER enacted by Congress, making the New Deal look small, accounting for inflation.
• The “Stimulus” Bills Your Family – $825 Billion is equivalent to [1] borrowing $10,520 from EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA. This money has to be paid back.
• If all families were asked to equally shoulder the burden of $825 Billon, this debt would be equivalent to what they roughly spend on [2] food, clothing, and health care in an entire year.
• If Government Spending solved recessions, we would never have recessions.

BAD IDEAS – “THE DEVIL IN DISGUISE”
The hidden liberal policy agenda inside the ‘stimulus bill’…

• [3] Over $142 Billion in Federal education funds: Nearly double the total outlays for the Dept. of Education in 2007 – making good on Reid-Pelosi-Obama education promises to the NEA.
• $87 Billion Medicaid bailout: Medicaid is funded by a formula that matches state spending levels with federal dollars. If we keep bailing states out, they will have every incentive to continue [4] irresponsible spending. Fiscally responsible taxpayers in Indiana are now paying for fiscally irresponsible bureaucrats in Illinois.
• Expanded Medicaid coverage and SCHIP: Reid-Pelosi-Obama are enacting a [5] nationalized health care policy with no debate. The government will soon be responsible for more health care spending than the private sector, i.e. socialized medicine.
• Green Jobs?: The myth of [6] ‘green jobs’ merely means replacing one job lost, with a new job that fits the left’s agenda. It is a zero sum game. More than doubling spending, the stimulus also has over $35 billion for the Dept. of Energy. DOE’s current budget is $23.8 billion.
• Family Planning and birth control for children, immigrants and the wealthy, which could also be used as a backdoor to allow federal funding of abortions. [7] How is this stimulus?  **UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi agrees this is not stimulus and has removed it from the bill proving these measures are allergic to sunshine.**
• Redistribution: [8] Refundable Tax Credits for people who don’t pay taxes.
• Pork Spending: Digital TV Coupons ($650 Million), Gov’t Cars ($600 Million), Nat’l Endowment for the Arts ($50 Million), Repairs to National Mall ($200 Million, including $21m for sod).

BAD RESULTS

• No Jobs: While they have not been able to support these claims, Pelosi/Obama promise between 3 & 4 million jobs, yet House Tax Committee staff can’t estimate even ONE job will be created.
• Ineffective: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that only 52% of the spending in the ‘stimulus bill’ can even be spent by the end of FY’10.  Well short of the 75% benchmark set by President Obama.

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.” – FDR’s Treasury Sec. Henry Morgenthau Jr., architect of the New Deal.

BETTER IDEAS AND RESULTS

1. Make the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts permanent, instead of raising taxes in 2011; Reduce Marginal Tax Rates for  Individuals and Businesses by 10% creating new jobs. Adopting just this one proposal would create [9] between 500,000 and 1 million jobs in one year.
2. Repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax & reduce the Death Tax to 15% ($5 mil. individual exclusion) Enact long-term reforms and budgets for entitlement spending., putting long-term obligations from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, front and center in the budget process.
3. Assess and enforce [10] long term spending rules in Congress. Get us out of debt!
4. Go to [11] Heritage.org for more ideas and ways to avoid giving Americans a debt they didn’t create.

Article printed from The Foundry: http://blog.heritage.org

URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/01/27/stimulus-101-the-pelosi-reid-obama-debt-plan/

URLs in this post:

[1] borrowing $10,520: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/wm2242.cfm

[2] food, clothing, and health care: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/wm2242.cfm

[3] Over $142 Billion in Federal education funds: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/bg2233.cfm

[4] irresponsible spending: http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm2235.cfm

[5] nationalized health care policy: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/01/26/fast-tracking-government-control-of-health-care/

[6] ‘green jobs’: http://www.heritage.org/Research/EnergyandEnvironment/wm2245.cfm

[7] How is this stimulus?: http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/wm2237.cfm

[8] Refundable Tax Credits: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/wm2240.cfm

[9] between 500,000 and 1 million jobs in one year: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/wm2191.cfm

[10] long term spending rules: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm2199.cfm

[11] Heritage.org: http://www.heritage.org/