Will the $819 billion stimulus under consideration in Congress help or hurt the economy?

Hurt

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by Linda Sunkle-Pierucki

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In sixty years of watching what passes for politics in the United States, I can say with certainty that nothing has frightened me quite as much as this so-called 'Stimulus' monstrosity rushing through Congress. For one thing, Keynesian economics has been proven wrong on every economic downturn where it has been attempted. Even Keynes himself admitted the shortcomings of his theories in this area, saying, "In the end, we're all dead": neat little cop-out to absolve oneself when the end of the story is less than the glowing promise of the beginning. Keynes IS dead-but we have to live with the consequences of his theory if we follow it once again.

History has pretty much exposed the fallacy that FDR's New Deal did anything positive in the 1930's and only prolonged the depression while starving the country of capitol: he threw so much money into the public sector that the private sector was further impoverished and couldn't recover. The amount of money, the amount of deficit spending this so-called stimulus will entail boggles the mind. But, so did the so-called TARP bailouts, not to mention the other huge numbers of freshly-printed bills slipped surreptitiously out of the Federal Reserve into the hands of the international bankers without any oversight at all.

No, the huge deficit is the least of my worries. My concerns center around the dollars they DON'T talk about-the ones that are destined to destroy our freedoms and forever change the face of America. The so-called Stimulus is less about solving a widespread economic problem than about vastly expanding Socialist programs and guaranteeing their perpetuation by subterfuge. Three separate crucial parts of government-run health care are hidden in the bill, the worst part demanding an electronic record of all of our medical needs. This will allow government overseers to track what you are costing the system. The cash infusion for Medicare is sorely needed and points to the inefficiencies of government-run health care even as they reduce services and underpay for treatments, causing the rest of us to pick up the bill via inflated costs. The massive expansion of child health coverage, now extended to the children of illegal aliens-that has failed everywhere it has been tried-is another piece of the pie-in-the-sky plan. Perhaps the money for STD prevention is meant to support a growth industry of prostitution? Do you need a college education for that?

For those who think the idea of government-run health care is just great, I suggest they do some serious reading on Great Britain's system of mis-treatment. Weekly, it seems, we pick up yet another story of someone who pulled his own teeth with pliers in desperation after failing to find a government dentist for many months. Who hasn't heard about the woman who was refused treatment for a fatal illness because she had the audacity to pay privately for a medication that wasn't on the 'approved' list which improved her condition. She was then refused further treatment that would save her life. Or the thousands of cases of people denied or delayed treatment even unto death? The system discriminates based on age, lifestyle and disease. HIV-AIDS is disease which immediately comes to mind in terms of cost-benefit inefficiency-unless it's you or a loved one who's suffering. Stories are now surfacing out of Japan, whose experiment in socialized medicine is much newer but has already seen many of the same problems.

Anyone who has read Tom Daschle's book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis" quickly realizes he advocates a system wherein a government board determines if a course of treatment has a cost-effective expected outcome based on age and price. He suggests doctors become more dispassionate and learn to follow the new mandates of government officials who will decide what your life is worth and which drug you should be taking-and whether you have had every possible vaccine in the govt-sponsored medicine cabinet. If you're a retiree, I don't expect you'll be worth much-one of Daschle's statements is that people will have to become more accepting of the aches and pains of aging, more accepting of terminal diagnosis and reduced end-of-life treatment. You'll remember Obama attempted to place him in the cabinet as Director of Health and Human Services but was stymied because Daschle had 'forgotten' to pay more taxes than many of us make in income per year! In the immortal words of Leona Helmsley, "Only the little people pay taxes!" Or get refused health care.

Then, there's all that money for 'education'. However, buildings do not a good education make. Anyone old enough to remember can clearly recognize the date when our public education system went down the tubes: it was when the Dept of Education was born. Since its inception, the loss of local control of schools has assured a uniform mediocrity of education, failed learning strategies and massive social engineering. Ask any fifteen year old about the Second World War-he'll look at you blankly. They can, however, expound at great length about the horrible crimes of the United States around the world, its overbearing, imperialistic actions and it's destruction of the world's environment and climate. A huge number of today's students can't read, can't write, can't spell, can't do simple math and have never developed the capacity for dispassionate critical thinking. In between disjointed sex education efforts they have been fed a steady diet of the joys of socialism, the progressive successes of Marx and the struggles of revolutionary leaders such as Chavez, Che, Castro and Pol Pot. Buildings and computers won't correct that.

Why does Milwaukee, for instance, get billions for schools with a declining enrollment and fifteen closed schools-and they didn't ask for any? Anyone unfamiliar with the sordid tale of our education system should take the time to read Charlotte Iserbyte's "Deliberate Dumbing Down of America." It's free to read on-line. Money for schools, however, pleases one of the largest Democratic support unions, the NEA. Money for 'education' guarantees the health and vitality of a strong Democratic voting block; self-perpetuation of the Obama 'machine'. Likewise, money is included for PELL grants: the statement has been made that they can be used to help students 'ride out' the recession in the safety of the University system. . .a telling statement as their parents starve on the streets as foreclosures and job losses continue to their natural conclusion.

Then there are the jobs to be created in government itself-someone has to man the burgeoning bureaucracy created by a growing government that already employs one in five US workers-with prime pay and better benefits than the taxpayers have! The long-suffering civil service unions are already bragging to their members about the patronage system that will be set up to assure the continued support of the new Marxist agenda. Added to the government-controlle d health care industry and the thoroughly happy members of the NEA, the Democrats will completely control a perpetual majority of likely voters who will march in lockstep to the new Socialist Party that is their bread and butter.

There's money for the Arts-apparently the most compassionate among our Congressmen don't understand the need to feed the body before you enrich the soul. If an artist cant sustain him or herself on his art, then he'd better get a job. . .and get in line with the rest of us! But, I'm forgetting-more Dem voters!

Don't forget taxpayer dollars for more rail systems in areas that cant begin to support it and cant assure any ridership, 'green' technology which wont begin to come to fruition for at least ten years-likely more (and an Executive Order just ended any hope of off-shore drilling or oil self-sufficiency), millions for Hollywood to 'buy film' (they get film, we get votes-what a deal!), tax cuts that help next year but not this, road and infrastructure projects which, we have been assured, wont be going to the usual white construction workers and neglects to see that these jobs go to legal workers at all (Note: one in seven construction workers are now immigrants-many illegal-and yet another, illegal voting block). Although infrastructure upgrades are sorely needed, it appears many of the not an earmark' earmarks are already written to reward specific areas, such as the $2 billion for a power plant innovation near Chicago that the experts say wont work! There are huge dollars for national and international environmental control systems that will devastate remaining industry with no plans for replacement-and no true proof they are needed, or would help. But, it will please a core group of voters, most of whom have no idea what it takes to provide their own living expenses.

Yes, there are billions to bail the States out of their budget problems; the States are already trying to do an end-run around the inevitable government control that will accompany any cash. Several States have already introduced resolutions to warn the Federal Government that it cannot step on sovereign States rights, citing the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Many more are in the works. Cash is needed to pay for increased unemployment costs, food banks, emergency shelters. That portion of the funds, however seems to be an afterthought compared to the control-for-cash portions. Governors are already adjusting their budgets to accommodate this influx of cash; instead of cutting expensive and frivolous projects, Gov Granholm of Michigan announced this week she will be cutting a large portion of the budget for schools-knowing the Feds are planning to ride right in on their green, taxpayer-fed horse to rescue them for her. A little talked-about provision of these bail-out funds is that no religious use of facilities repaired or refurbished with these funds will be permitted: don't plan to use the Community Room at the Rec center for services ever again if your church roof needs repair!

As for the mortgage mess? Well, ACORN and their many subsidiaries will have an easier time of it wangling dollars for low-income mortgages-the states and local governments have been take out of the mix and will no longer have oversight of those dollars. HUGE billions in cash will become available for these groups of 'community organizers' to dole out. . .there goes another voting block, one that will assure the perpetuation of the no money down, no income, no questions asked failing loans to people who would be better served in utilities-included subsidized housing. But, they will all vote Democratic! Will ACORN use these newly-washed funds to bail out their employees who are incarcerated in several states, charged with election fraud? Hmmm-I wonder.

Common economics agrees that for every dollar spent in the Federal sector, one is lost in the private sector. This $820 billion-or what ever the number ends up being, will be removed from circulation that could be building new jobs, hiring new workers, providing new tax dollars. The cost of this huge political patronage program extends into well over a trillion when you start adding interest on the debt.

The jobs created are negligible-short-ter m construction projects that may take a few months and then it's back to the unemployment line. Most are things that will require on-going tax dollars to maintain: the lists from the cities are most telling. Rain Gardens, StreetScapes, Arts Centers, Recreations Centers, Riverwalks, Water gardens, bike paths, parks-every far-reaching dream a city planner can come up with. To beautify a city filled with out-of-work, nearly homeless citizens who are losing their property to local taxes. Next year, the taxes must go up to pay for these new 'improvements'.

This rapid descent into full-blown Socialism is obvious to the rest of the world, even if the American people are unaware. Europe, which sustains high continuous unemployment because the socialist systems devour such a large portion of the GDP that business cant survive, is terrified that the loss of America's capitalistic system will harm the incomes they manage to acquire in trade. Russia has Putin lecturing us on freedom and sustaining a viable economy. . .and makes more sense that our current leaders. Read some of the European newspaper editorials that are readily available in English on-line, to see what they really have to say.

America is in trouble, all right. We need to rebuild an economy that has been devastated by scheming financial managers, selectively-managed Free Trade, Congressional double-dealing and a Federal reserve that answers to no one but the International bankers. We need to see that 'free trade' is truly fair trade and doesn't devastate the American workers.
We need to see that people are taken care of, in terms of housing and food, until the economy begins to right itself. Obama's statements to the contrary, the situation cannot continue to get worse forever, cannot reduce this country to cavemen living without the benefit of fire. Yet, that's what this fear-mongering is intended to do: convince us all that our very survival depends on this giant move into Socialism. For, if we go this way, we will truly NEVER get out of the pit we've dug. Socialist societies do not grow wealth-they simply subsist marginally until the all-powerful leaders decide to grab even more power and the people begin to die, usually by government's hand. Socialist societies are not growth societies-only the production of a product for personal gain grows an economy.

This stimulus bill isn't about jobs-it's simply being reported that way. It also isn't about getting cash into the pockets of smal' business and American workers. It's about making sure the American people are forced to depend on government for everything-from their housing to their medical care. The average man on the street still thinks he's getting a big check from the government-not! The tax breaks average out at about $13 a week. The inflation caused by this indiscriminate pumping up of the National debt will likely take several times that amount out of earning power. The $15,000 credit for buying a home is gone, crossed out, non-existent. The cost exceeds the total cost of the Vietnam War, of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why doesn't the public know this? Overt threats of a new, improved "Fairness Doctrine" have the news media all keeping their heads down and out of the sights of the current administration.

Ameri ca needs to grow up-and fast. It is truly time to put away childish things'. Chief among them is the belief that someone else will take care of us-like government. Or, that it is the responsibility of the American middle-class to take care of the rest of the world. The adults among us need to demand, loudly and persistently, that we wont allow our society and our way of life to be sacrificed on the alter of failed Marxist ideologies. Stimulus? All this is stimulating is my anxiety and my anger!.

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