Rich Mannion – 2/15/09

This page was last updated on February 16, 2009.

Don’t swallow stimulus hype; Rich Mannion; Beaver County Times; February 15, 2009.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“On Wednesday, a supposed stimulus package was agreed upon by our representatives in Congress.

[RWC] Since Mr. Mannion wrote his letter, Congress passed the final spending bill. Only three Republicans voted for the bill, PA’s Sen. Arlen Specter and Maine’s Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. All three routinely vote with Democrats, and for Republicans have fairly low lifetime American Conservative Union ratings of 45%, 52%, and 49%, respectively. In other words, between the three of them, these three “Republicans” vote the conservative position on bills less than half the time.

Appropriately, Congress passed the bill (H.R. 1) on Friday the 13^th.

“They work for us. Not the other way around. But for some reason, they feel they can do whatever it is they desire, no matter what our opinions are.

“I speak of the latest Rasmussen poll where 63 percent of all Americans do not want this stimulus to pass because these same people polled don’t think it is a stimulus at all, and 62 percent want the stimulus to have more tax cuts.

“The bill includes $11.5 billion for special education and $10 billion for low-income students. These and many more great programs should be funded, but not in a stimulus bill.

“The bill also helps modernize health information technology. But watch that closely. This could very easily end up helping the government influence medical costs by denying treatment to seniors whose records show they are too old to benefit from certain drugs, tests or procedures. Some Democrats and Republicans in Congress are concerned by this sleight-of-hand move.”

[RWC] For the most part this letter is OK, but it falls off the tracks in the previous two paragraphs. Which articles in the U.S. Constitution give the federal government responsibility for “special education,” “low-income students,” or “modernizing health information technology?” Even if you believe these are good things to spend money on, the money shouldn’t come from federal taxpayers.

“The tax breaks were, of course, cut back. These people don’t trust us with our own money. If they really wanted to stimulate the economy, they should have taken the dollar amount of this bill and split it amongst us, giving each citizen approximately $2,700.”

[RWC] Shouldn’t it be in proportion to the taxes paid by an individual? That is, if Jane pays 10 times as much in taxes as Jack, shouldn’t she get 10 times as much tax relief? Otherwise, it’s just another way to rob Peter to pay Paul.

“Government is not the only answer. I have faith in the ingenuity of the American people to band together when times are tough to make great things happen.”