Stimulus Package Debate

There has been much talk over Obama’s stimulus plan even before he was elected into office. Now that a 2-year economic stimulus package has been passed, Republicans, Democrats, economists, and everyone else has been weighing in. The Senate was pressured into making negotiations with the Houses bill (which was passed two weeks ago) quickly due to our collapsing economy and Barack Obama’s wish to sign the bill before President’s Day, which starts a congressional recess. The House and Senate negotiations were finally completed on Wednesday when the final stimulus bill was passed. No Republicans supported the House bill, which allowed the Senate to have the upper hand when they found the support of three Republicans. The Democrats and Republicans have been repeatedly pointing fingers at one another as to who holds the blame in regards to negotiating the stimulus bill. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. stated (of the Republicans), “It’s been their way or nothing. We’re losing a lot of the jobs that the president wanted because of it.”
USA Today published an article by Richard Wolf and John Fritze entitled, “Negotiators agree on $789B stimulus bill”, outlining all of the positive aspects that will hopefully come out of President Obama’s plan. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that, “The middle ground we’ve reached creates more jobs than the original Senate bill and costs less than the original House bill”. Approximately 3.5 million jobs once the President signs the bill into law. The article also mentions that the bill is intended to, “help the victims of the recession in the form of expanded unemployment benefits, food stamps, health coverage and more, as well as billions for states that face the prospect of making deep cuts in school aid and other programs”. Obama’s “signature tax cut plan” of creating tax cuts for millions of lower class and middle class persons is still included in the bill. The White House also plans to act on higher spending in the House bill as to better stimulate the economy. Many people are satisfied and thrilled about the passing of this bill, including the President. The article closes with an optimistic statement intended to boost the confidence of Americans, “…machinery giant Caterpillar Inc., plans to rescind some of the 22,000 layoffs the firm recently announced – once the stimulus is signed into law.”
Not everyone is so thrilled with the 789 billion dollar bill. In an aticle entitled “Pork & Pet Projects” on CBS News, Declan McCullagh criticizes the bill mainly for all of its unnecessary spendings. He sights such spending such as, “Shipyards get $100 million in handouts; $400 million is diverted to “farm and ownership loans”. Another $200 million goes to computer centers at community colleges, and $650 million for “additional coupons and related activities” for the digital-to-analog converter box program. NASA and the National Science Foundation receive $2.3 billion”. McCullagh argues that this is wasteful spending and who is to truly deserving of stimulus funds. He also sites that one month ago the New York Times reported that the Democratic proposal “will devote about 40 percent of the cost to tax cuts” and yet by now that number has diminished to only 22%. All in all McCullagh sees the stimulus bill as not significantly helping or improving the economy but rather as simple wasteful government spending.
The last article written by Michael Shear and Anne Kornblut, “Obama Paints America’s Choice as His Plan or Nothing” comes from the Washington Post. The article was written about Obama’s news conference in Fort Myers, where Obama criticized those who “do nothing”. The article argues slightly that even though one may not necessarily agree with the stimulus package, doesn’t mean they are doing nothing. For example, the article sites that some support a package of the same size but would rather see a higher proportion of tax cuts than the new spending. Much of the “do nothing” mentality has been placed on the Republicans in the House and Senate. No Republican would suggest doing nothing in the midst of an economic recession; they just believe we should be going about this in a different way.
Personally, I believe that the economic recession America is currently in is affecting everybody. I do not believe the plan should have been rushed and perhaps aspects should have been more carefully looked over. For example the issue of electronic medical records that seem to be overlooked. I do understand that action must be taken as soon as possible, but a bill as large as 789 billion dollars needs to be carefully looked at. There is definitely unnecessary government spending that is going to be taking place and there are other options that should have been considered beforehand. The debates over the pros and cons of this bill have only just begun and hopefully the pros will in time outweigh the cons.