by Senate Republicans held together, mostly, to stop the Democrats’ stimulus package from passing, according to the NY Times:
The measure was opposed by Republican leaders who said the Democrats added too many costly provisions, including an extension of unemployment benefits, tax credits for the coal industry and increased subsidies for home energy costs.
The total cost of the Senate plan came to about $204 billion over two years, or about $40 billion more than the House version.
Stopping this bloated giveaway extravaganza is a good thing.
Unlike what Republican leader Mitch McConnell thinks, there’s absolutely no sense in this sequence of events:
- Citizens earn money
- Federal government taxes them
- Federal government spends all tax "revenue" and then some
- Federal government borrows money to give back to taxpayers to "stimulate" economy
That’s a fool’s thinking and a recipe for inevitable economy disaster, if perpetuated.
Yet President Bush, nominally a Republican, is 100% behind the tax-spend-borrow plan:
The White House again urged the Senate to act quickly.
“It is crucial that the Senate now move quickly to pass a bill that will deliver relief to our economy,” the press secretary, Dana M. Perino, said.
As bad as the House version of this bill is – and it’s bad, to the tune of $160B – the Senate version is that much worse.
Notably, John McCain, the newly-minted fiscal conservative who saved us billions on that tanker deal – you know, the one he mentions in every debate – did not vote on this bill but said that he’d have voted against it. Good for you John. I imagine you’ll get that chance in coming days and that, in the end, the American people will be another $200B in debt.
