Not very stimulating

1/31/2009

There was a letter in the WSJ yesterday mocking Rush Limbaugh’s sensible suggestions to stimulate the economy – cut the corporate tax rate in half; eliminate the capital gains tax until the economy is back on track, etc. The writer thanked Limbaugh for allowing him to think of spring – April 1st specifically.
If ever there was a proposal worthy of being called an April Fools joke it’s the current $800+ billion stimulus bill presently making its way through the Democratically controlled Congress. The WSJ estimates that only about 12% of the bill could correctly be called stimulative. The rest is pure pork and redistributive entitlements. There’s a reason the stock market is down nearly 20% since Election Day.
I consider myself a conservative, not a Republican, but I was gratified to see the House Republicans vote unanimously(!) against this Obamination. Hopefully, the Senate Republicans can follow suit or at least come close.

There were a couple of good editorial columns in the WSJ today (1/31). One by Peter Berkowitz linked the twin obsessions of the left, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria and made the case that neither will disappear anytime soon. The other, surprisingly, was by Peggy Noonan who I usually find to be insufferably full of herself (and other stuff). She wrote about how Obama blew his first chance at demonstrating how truly post partisan he is by supporting Nancy Pelosi's uber-partisan 'stimulus' package.