Saturday, February 14, 2009
Transparent as mud
Not one member of Congress has read the monstrous stimulus bill that just passed. How could they have? The Democrats allowed only 24 hours to elapse between the conference deal and the final vote.
Two days ago, lefty bloggers were arguing that the Judd kerfuffle somehow amounted to a "declaration of war" by the GOP on the Obama administration. How, though, does that compare to the tactics used by the Democrats to prevent any sort of meaningful debate by Republicans, the press, or even the lightspeed blogosphere on this crucial piece of legislation? Not only did the Obama-Pelosi-Reid axis make a mockery of their own pledges of transparency, but they never once explained why the palpable need to act quickly -- I agree with that -- meant that there was no time to post the bill on the web or argue about it for a week or two. Whatever the need for speed, the difference between one day and ten days would be irrelevant to the economy. No, the bill had to be passed quickly precisely because the Democrats were afraid of the argument itself.
Several things might be said about this. First, let us not hear any more bleating about a new way of doing business in Washington. These were the tactics of the most opaque state government -- see, e.g., anything done in Trenton in the last decade. Whatever Barack Obama's aspirations (and I will earn the ridicule of my readers by saying that on the matter of transparency I believed him to be as sincere as any politician), his politics of fear allowed the Congressional Democrats to slam through legislation that everybody had written a piece of, but nobody had read or understood. We do not know what has happened here, and we won't for some time, but when we finally figure it out I am quite confident that a majority of attentive Americans will be appalled.
Second, the Republicans are not nearly so well positioned to take advantage of this outrage as they would be if they and the Bush administration had not been so undisciplined in their spending for most of the last decade. Sadly, it is very hard for Republicans to object with any credibility to government spending in general. That is why their only hope for rebuilding their own reputation as the party of spending restraint is to attack specific idiotic items rather than the amount of spending in the abstract. Democrats understand this, which is why they moved to prevent the public from understanding the content of the bill before the vote.
Third, the contents of this bill will become public, and every member of Congress who voted for it will own every last bit of stupidity in the bill. The sound bite advertising in the 2010 Congressional races will be hilarious.
Finally, Barack Obama has the means to reassert himself and put the Congressional Democrats on the defensive. He can veto the bill, mark it up, and send back a version that he will sign. That would strengthen his presidency, even if it would delay the passage of the legislation by a few weeks. If he does not do this (and I do not think it likely given his pledge to sign it), Pelosi and Reid will have their way with him from this way forward. That will be bad.
13 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Feb 14, 10:19:00 AM:
Seems to be Pelosi and Reid have just turned Barack Obama into their very own "White House Negro."
If I were Sarah Palin, for one, I'd be cackling with glee and rubbing my hands together right now. The Donks might as well have hung signs on their asses saying, "KICK ME." Indeed Obama, more than anyone else, now owns this abortion of a bill...and the GOP is going to remind him, and the public, of this fact every chance it gets.
"Speaker Pelosi, how can you tell us the stimulus will work...when you haven't even read the entire thing yourself?"
By , at
Sat Feb 14, 10:50:00 AM:
Congress had more than three weeks to read the bill. [I trust red-lined copies were available to any congressperson who chose to compare original with final]
Besides, Congress had twice as much time to read this Stimulus Bill than it did from the moment Paulson first proposed his $700 Billion bailout plan to the date 10 days later when Bush signed it.
By 
TigerHawk, at
Sat Feb 14, 11:04:00 AM:
Congress had more than three weeks to read the bill. [I trust red-lined copies were available to any congressperson who chose to compare original with final]
I would not count on it. Why not then post it on the web in advance?
Besides, Congress had twice as much time to read this Stimulus Bill than it did from the moment Paulson first proposed his $700 Billion bailout plan to the date 10 days later when Bush signed it.
That's a fair point, except the TARP is only like 50 pages long. Joe Biden could read it on his long train ride home. Also, and more importantly, there was a palpable need for high speed intervention then -- the interbank lending and commercial paper markets had stopped functioning entirely, which might have been catastrophic immediately. Now we are in the midst of a recession that will take a very long time to fix, and the proposed stimulus will take year to implement. A few days here or there simply will not matter. That was not true in the fall with regard to the TARP.
By , at
Sat Feb 14, 11:43:00 AM:
A few days here or there simply will not matter.
Except of course, if you're bumping up to your recess.
By , at
Sat Feb 14, 12:40:00 PM:
Re "the need to act quickly."
Perhaps it makes a difference when your ship is fast approaching an iceberg whether the order is given to quickly turn away or go full speed ahead.
Or maybe the lesson to be gleaned is we should never have steered our ship into the ice field to begin with and are now doomed, as a result, in either event.
By , at
Sat Feb 14, 02:54:00 PM:
Where to begin.
The Stimulus Bill actually gives pork a bad name. There's precious little "investment" in it ... usually pork builds something that we probably don't need ... but once the money is spent, at least we have something to show for it. Ironically, the late inclusion in the Stimulus Bill of the the "Harry Reid Memorial ... Los Angeles to Vegas ... Gamblers Express" may be one of the few things in it with a measurable payback period.
Whether you're a capitalist or a socialist, you can't avoid "opportunity cost." If we had instead spent $800 billion on nuclear reactors we could have more than doubled the contribution of nuclear to the US electricity supply from 20% to over 40% ... maybe then we'd have the juice to fuel those electric cars Obama wants us to drive.
Don't underestimate Obama's hand in the stimulus bill ... he got a major win for his personal agenda. The stimulus bill gives him a huge war chest to act the role of a profligate big city mayor, but with his own dollar bill printing press. Much of this money will bailout states and cities ... expect a heavy political hand in how it's distributed. Favored states won't have to worry anymore about balancing their books. Obama will give them the funds so they can keep increasing their spending.
The current recession will likely be over by the end of this year, so Obama can use Stimulus Bill funds to "make it rain" for favored constituencies going into the 2010 elections. If the economy doesn't totally suck in 2010, the Democrats will retain control, and be positioned to do even more damage.
My best argument for why we needed McCain elected in 2008 was to stop precisely this. We can't trust the Democrats in control of House, Senate and White House
... but neither could we trust the Republicans. The Prescription Drug Benefit was actually bigger than the Stimulus Bill, just to name one thing. There are literally something like 200 House Republicans who voted for the Prescription Drug Benefit who are still in Congress ... but now indignant. Both parties are the enemy of our future, I'm convinced.
This is the path we're on ... the federal government is sucking up more and more of the annual pie ... and will only be stupid and political about how it distributes it. Most voters won't care ... and will even embrace this ... so long as they're getting some kind of check from the government. Because economic growth is almost entirely driven by the private sector ... which will be starved for investment resources ... growth will be anemic at best. Without growth, future social spending commitments will be even more unsustainable.
The potential crisis from this stretches out later than 2010. As a rich nation we can afford to make a few trillion dollar mistakes ... but we can't make it an annual habit. Much of the Stimulus Bill is set-up to be recurring, so expect future versions of it ... and annual trillion dollar deficits to continue. This is unsustainable, but I'm not sure of exactly how and when it will break down.
As a nation we've dealt with worse. But this daunting ... and to me, maddening ... as it's mostly self-inflicted.
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By , at
Sat Feb 14, 03:38:00 PM:
Per our Constitution, we're supposed to have a limited federal government. We now have anything but. That big sucking sound you're hearing is money and power being vacuumed into DC from the rest of the country.
The more that power and money go to DC, the less accountable it is. I actually think my town government isn't bad. The voters have recently twice turned down bond approvals for school fields because the school board had larded it up too much. We even had a tie vote for mayor in 2005, so my vote actually counted!
If we're going to have a tyranny in DC, I'd prefer to be ruled by the Chinese Communist rulers. Our rulers make dumb, short-sighted decisions ... Republicans and Democrats both ... the Chinese leaders at least are smart and have vision.
Link, again
By JPMcT, at
Sat Feb 14, 04:29:00 PM:
I strongly suspect that the Dems didn't have to read the bill...because it was written over the last FOUR YEARS!! It was tied up with a pretty bow and ready to go before Obama had the first debate. All they needed was a "crisis" to lather up uninformed (ie. Democrat grass roots) support and give the bill a name.
Why else would the bill have pretty much nothing in it that lives up to it's name? It's basically a list of liberal wet dream material culled from the last four years of anticipation that Republicans didn't have a chance at either the White House or Congress.
The only thing Pelosi and Reid needed Republicans for was to give the bill a "bipartisan" moniker. With Republican fingerprints on the bill, the blame will get spread evenly when the Chrismas shopping statements come in the mailbox next month.
The bill is an appalling abuse of power. I am glad to see that most of the media outlets have at least become embarrassed with calling it "bipartisan" and have labelled it THE OBAMA BILL.
Bill indeed!
By , at
Sat Feb 14, 07:18:00 PM:
If they really wanted to, 40 Republican Senators could have read 20-25 pages each in an hour, then they all meet and discuss what they've learned. That they didn't bother doing even this quick and dirty level of scrutiny speaks volumes.
By , at
Sat Feb 14, 09:03:00 PM:
"Finally, Barack Obama has the means to reassert himself and put the Congressional Democrats on the defensive. He can veto the bill, mark it up, and send back a version that he will sign. That would strengthen his presidency, even if it would delay the passage of the legislation by a few weeks."
Your enduring faith in the idea that the President has the cojones to stand up to his party bewilders me. He does not have the strength of character. I wish it were so, but it's not.
By Georg Felis, at
Sun Feb 15, 12:54:00 AM:
The Dems have made their bed, now let them lie in it. (no, that is not a typo)
By , at
Sun Feb 15, 07:19:00 AM:
I wouldn't be so smug, georgefelis. It's your bed now, too.
By , at
Sun Feb 15, 12:25:00 PM:
Here's a question for the group.
Did the Stimulus Bill happen because Obama got rolled by Pelosi - Reid, or did Obama get what he wanted? I believe the latter, and that Obama is clever and Machiavellian. He's no Bambi.
Having Pelosi-Reid take the lead on the Stimulus Bill gave Obama distance from its details, and freed Obama to spend his time scaring the public into the need for its passing. Many parts of the Stimulus Bill will give Obama the funds to have a huge war chest to act the role of a profligate big city mayor to "make it rain" for favored constituents. Thus, he already has his base covered for 2010 and 2012. Many of our big cities went profligate this way, not all of them recovered. Obama & Co now have a dollar bill printing press, so they can carry this out on a huge scale, and for longer.
If Obama is no Bambi, be afraid. He's either oblivious to the disciplines of math, "opportunity cost", and basic science, or has an even broader agenda. I fear he wants to use deficits to create the need for more taxes as a way to level society .... thus to create socialism from within.
I encountered a few types like Obama in college, and even more at an Ivy-league law school. This is the way the hard left thinks ... they may have one of their own in the Big Seat.
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