The Road to Ruin

FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE.com ^ | July 13, 2009 | Jacob Laksin

[Cindy]

If at first you don’t succeed, spend and spend again.

That seems to be the Obama administration’s motto as it contemplates a new round of stimulus spending – a sequel to February’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the staggering, $787-billion stimulus package that so far has delivered little in the way of economic recovery.

To be sure, the administration is publically talking down the possibility of a second stimulus, at least for now. The Financial Times reported last week that “administration officials think further stimulus might eventually be needed but they do not want to have this fight now.”

One can hardly blame them. Some $56 billion of the original stimulus package have been spent to date, and the results are far from encouraging. Against President Obama’s assurance that the “stimulus package is working exactly as we had anticipated,” no less an administration figure than Vice President Biden wandered off script during a television appearance last weekend and admitted that the administration had “misread how bad” the economy is.

That is putting it mildly. By almost any significant measure of economic recovery, the Obama stimulus has been a high-cost flop. The pertinent question about yet another stimulus package is not when it will be needed, but rather, Can the country really afford it?

[Cindy]

Along the same line...

Quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2283150/posts

A road map or a road to ruin?
LA Times ^ | July, 1, 2009 | Editorial
Posted on July 1, 2009 4:52:35 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

It’s remarkable what Congress can do when money is no object, as the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure demonstrated when it put out a blueprint for a reauthorization bill to govern the nation’s spending on transportation. It’s a cornucopia of goodies that’s getting strong reviews from interest groups, mainly because it gives them nearly everything they’ve been asking for: Environmentalists get a new bureaucracy to encourage green projects, public transit agencies get a big influx of cash, high-speed rail enthusiasts get new trains, and states get billions in additional money to build and improve roads, bridges and highways.

There’s just one small detail that has been left out — so far, the committee hasn’t identified a way to pay for any of this. And the price tag is breathtaking: $500 billion over six years, a 53% hike over federal transportation spending in the previous six.

We’ll reserve judgment until we see the committee’s funding proposal. But it takes a lot of chutzpah to propose such a huge spending increase in the midst of an economic depression, after the country has racked up nearly $800 billion in stimulus spending and is considering a healthcare plan estimated to cost north of $1 trillion over 10 years. For now, this bill may be a bridge too far.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...

[familyop]

It’s part of a feeding frenzy. She who keeps paychecks going to bureaucrats gets the votes. We have a little time, and that’s about it, IMO. As for schemes of intentional international hyperinflation, well, inflation needs buyers. Those were a no-go.