Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2009 > February > 03
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
The Senate GOP’s stimulus ‘hit list’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate Republicans have released a list of projects in the stimulus bill that they consider wasteful. There are a few that sound dubious as stimulus, at least at first hearing.
They include, as CNN describes them:
— A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
— $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.
— $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.
— $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”
Most of the rest of the list sounds pretty solid to me, though. For example, “$600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees” and “$200 million for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.” That’s $800 million to put autoworkers and steelworkers and parts suppliers back to work, plus encouraging automakers to invest in hybrid technology and production.
The same is true of “$650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands” — essentially hiring people to clear brush — and “$412 million for CDC buildings and property.” That CDC money would presumably be spent here in Atlanta, and I know people in construction who really need that work. (If you’ve ever spent time in the CDC offices, you know they’re not exactly working in the Taj Mahal).
This is a stimulus bill, designed to put people back to work and keep companies in business. These are the kinds of projects that would logically be in that kind of bill. If you oppose projects such as these, I’d argue that you are opposing the basic concept of a stimulus bill, and if that’s what Senate Republicans are doing, they should say so.
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Government saves and creates jobs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I confess: I love peanut butter. It’s a rare day when there’s not a peanut-smeared spoon or knife in the sink, evidence that I had once again dipped into my jar of Jiffy for a taste.
It’s a habit I haven’t had to surrender in the current salmonella crisis. Why? Because government scientists not only identified peanut butter as the problem, they quickly identified the specific peanut-processing plant that was causing the problem and they shut it down. As a result, major peanut-butter brands were not affected, and I can enjoy my indulgence without fear.
In that case, government saved lives. But what’s less well understood is that it also helped to save the livelihoods of tens of thousands of peanut growers and processors all over the country who had nothing to do with the problem.
The mayor of Blakely, Ga., the home of the troubled Peanut Corp. of America plant, writes a piece in today’s AJC bemoaning the economic damage done to his community by this crisis. However, if government hadn’t quickly isolated the source of the salmonella — if it had to issue a general warning that peanut butter can sicken or even kill you — the damage would have been far more widespread.
I raise the point as a small rebuttal to the anti-government arguments of GOP chairman Michael Steele and others. “Let’s get this notion out of our heads that the government creates jobs,” Steele says. “Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job. Small business owners do, small enterprises do. Not the government.”
In this particular incident, government saved jobs. In others, it has created them. For example, government investment and research created the Internet, which has produced millions of jobs. It even created Gatorade.
Despite right-wing rhetoric, government is not by definition a drag or deadweight on the economy. It certainly CAN be those things, but it can also be an essential partner in economic growth and prosperity. Government regulation, done properly, increases prosperity.
And while too much government oversight can indeed reduce prosperity, too little oversight can have the same impact, as the good people of Blakely can now testify. The inadequacy of state and federal health inspections has damaged their already frail local economy, just as the inadequacy of oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies contributed to this broader economic meltdown.
That argument doesn’t fit so well on a bumper sticker; it doesn’t sit well with those who see themselves as heroes in a bad Ayn Rand novel, and it doesn’t lend itself to TV soundbites. But it’s reality.
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Daschle trend in wrong direction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just a guess, based on a lot of little things and certainly no inside info:
Tom Daschle will withdraw as nominee for HHS secretary before the week is out.
Why? These things work on momentum, and once they start to shift in one direction, it’s very hard to reverse. After teetering early, the momentum is now against him.
UPDATE: (AP) Daschle withdraws nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services.
