Congressional Republicans did double duty this weekend appearing on the news shows to decry all the pork and Democratic Party pet projects scattered throughout the economic stimulus bill now working it's way through Congress. What's been lacking in the debate is a call for specifics; which programs are problematic to Republicans, why, and how much money is alloted to those programs?
Via Josh Marshall, here's the list of stimulus bill projects that give Representative Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) gas:
- $1.9 billion for high-level physics research;
- $1.5 billion for universities to improve their biomedical research programs;
- $600 million for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to purchase new satellites to improve weather forecasts;
- $600 million to buy new cars for federal government workers, adding to the existing inventory of 640,000 vehicles; and,
- $335 million for education and prevention programs regarding sexually transmitted diseases.
Do the math: It adds up to $4.9B. The total stimulus bill passed by the House last week was $819B. So, the programs that Rep. LoBiondo and the other Congressional Republicans object to represent 0.6% of the total package.
It's reasonable to argue whether this is the best use of $4.9B, but it's dishonest to assert that even this money isn't stimulus. The $4.9B goes to employ physicists, universities, satellite builders, automobile manufacturing and sales, and health care workers. And those folks, by virtue of their employment, buy goods and services they wouldn't if they were unemployed. And the folks who work supplying those goods and services, by virtue of their employment, go out and buy even more goods and services they wouldn't if they were unemployed. Yada, yada, yada. That's how stimulus works.
As the stimulus bill goes to the Senate, there's opportunity for more negotiation on the specifics of where the money should go. But the one thing everyone agrees on is that it's going to take about $900B to get the economy going again (even noted economist, Rush Limbaugh, agrees with the $900B pricetag). And, ironically, it's apparently difficult to find places to spend all that cash in the relatively short timeframe a stimulus will be effective. So, in order to expedite the economy's recovery, it may be that a (small) percentage of the money goes to programs thatare effective stimulus, but not optimum.
If there are better places to spend the money, Republicans and Democrats should include them. But to argue the stimulus bill is unacceptable because 0.6% of the total is not optimum is just politics at a time when the country's prosperity is at risk.
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