Self-Condemnation & Straw Men

Implicitly acknowledging the regrettable failure the "stimulus" promises to be, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have refused to defend it on its own merits. Instead, they have adopted the tactics of fear-mongering and straw men construction to resurrect and grow declining public support for it.

If we were to accept – for the sake of argument – that we face an economic "catastrophe" if nothing is done, then this legislation and the behavior of the President et al would be all the more abominable (or Obaminable). It would be malfeasance in the most extreme sense to concoct a trillion dollar appropriations bill with little economic stimulus (even in the Keynesian sense) or comprehensive logic while the country slowly slides over a deep precipice. Yet, if the President is correct in his apocalyptic warnings, that is exactly what is happening – in a time of mortal national danger Democrats are using the crisis as an opportunity to indulge in a smorgasbord of spending on initiatives they've long dreamed of, gorging themselves to gluttony at the public trough.

If things really were as dire as they say they are, they would be a lot more serious in devising a credible ameliorative (one would hope), one that is consistent with the "targeted, timely, and temporary" standard they originally devised.

The President also erred by misrepresenting the Republican position in his prime-time press conference last evening, creating a false dichotomy between passing the present iteration of the "stimulus" and doing nothing. I myself am a Republican, I know many other Republicans, and know of many more Republicans beyond that. None of us have claimed that the federal government should do nothing and that is certainly not the basis for our opposition to the Democratic package. We and many Democrats and Independents oppose it because in times such as these we cannot afford to mess up, especially when the price tag of such a mistake would be north of a trillion dollars. The federal government should enact a real stimulus package, one that addresses the problems plaguing the economy and one that creates the right incentives for future economic growth. We've crafted our own plans that would accomplish exactly that – they've been ignored by the powers that be.

If we are going to borrow so much money from our children and grandchildren we ought to make it worth our while, which is not what the President's package will do. It is little more than a massive scatter-shot of government spending and growth which will plunge us deeper into debt with little in return. Sophistry can only obfuscate this fact, it cannot change it.