The New New Deal was to provide unprecedented transparency on how government works. When campaigning for President Barack Obama promised a “plan to restore trust in government.”
That trust was badly broken yesterday and Americans should be concerned. Congress approved spending a huge amount of money with most of it is being paid for by increasing the debt owed by a future generation of taxpayers. Some have called this bill the Generational Theft Act of 2009.
How can we trust a government that shows such irresponsibility and contempt for taxpayers? StandardNet commented the stimulus is a bill to nowhere.
Yesterday an 1100 page, $787 Billion “Stimulus” bill was passed by the House of Representatives without one member of Congress reading the bill! Why?
Here is part of what House minority leader, John Boehner, from Ohio, said about this lack of transparency by Democrats in Congress, with Democrat President Barack Obama silent about this action:
… here we are with 1100 pages … and not one member of this body has read it. Not one. … I don’t know how you read 1100 pages between midnight and now. Not one member’s read this.
What happened to the promise that we’re going to let the American people see what’s in this bill for 48 hours? But, nope, we don’t have time to do that.
See the CSPAN video:
This bill was supposed to provide jobs to Americans needing work, but even the Washington Post commented about the pork in the bill.
Some estimate 30% of the spending in this bill will take place in 2011 or later. How does that future spending help the unemployed with jobs now? What was the rush to spend that money in the future without public discussion now?
Related:
- Economists don’t love the stimulus, Americans for Prosperity, Feb, 15, 2009.
- Missing from Congress’ stimulus negotiations: transparency, Los Angeles Times, Feb 14, 2009.
- “Generational Theft”: Kansas’ share of bailout/stimulus debt perhaps $23 Billion, Kansas Meadowlark, Feb 10, 2009.
Tags: Debt-Stimulus
