The stimulation for a nation

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In an age where everything is under constant scrutiny from constituencies, lobbyists, the media, elected officials and bureaucrats, everyone is looking to get their share of the funding and attention that comes with appropriating tax dollars.

Because of the economic upheaval happening today, it appears there are many wagging tongues that are looking for a little extra to cover their losses.

As President Barack Obama’s first bill passes the House to fight its next battle in the Senate, there will be changes made to guarantee its safe passage, although I strongly believe the obviously unnecessary portions in the legislation have been excised. Gone are the National Mall improvements, free contraceptives and other things that would not help to bring the economy out of its poor condition.

Of course, there must be further cuts to this bill so that it will benefit the country as best possible. But we must recognize that we would be cutting into the bone of our country if Congress does not take good care to figure out what must and must not remain in the legislation.

Some would argue that this stimulus package is nothing more than frivolous pork-barrel spending at its finest, paying for programs that do not address the economic calamities that are surfacing at an alarming rate. I’m sure, however, that the Bush tax cuts received the same verdict with these voices, right?

The truth is that tax breaks are not going to be the silver bullet of the snarling, terrible brute known as the “recession.”

The same can be said when the Republicans of the 1920s were advocating a hands-off approach to economic prosperity in America. Hoovervilles sprung up all over the country in the early 1930s as a result, and FDR’s New Deal was about the only answer to such a disaster.

The starving masses must understand that things are too complicated to split government programs into two categories – pork or stimulus. Nothing could be more complicated than updating nation’s the crumbling infrastructure, deficient electric grid and lagging communications.

All of the suffering areas of our everyday utilities will need to be worked on for an estimated five years, costing $2.2 trillion in the process! And it is only getting more expensive as it continues to be warred over between the local, state and federal governments in terms of who is in charge over what and who should pay for it.

Wall Street and its shareholders are privy to trends, but I find the American people cannot afford to ignore what needs fixing, because it will be the American people flipping the bill, private or public.