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1/29/2009
Surprise. Kagen votes to support "investment" package
Representative Kagen voted to approve H.R. 1, the Obey-named American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. No surprise there, though I placed my phone call and sent my e-mail Wednesday. Did you?
In yesterday’s post-vote press release, Kagen used the failsafe rhetoric of “investment,” calling the $819B “invest[ing] our hard-earned tax dollars right here at home, rebuilding America and crating new higher-wage jobs.” His press release goes on to repeat Dem/Obey talking points on this fantastically, unimaginably huge spending package.
I don’t buy it. I’m hoping against hope the Senate can bring some sanity into the bill.
Obviously, scads and scads of comments have been generated for and against the bill.
I appreciated a Cato Institute ad in the NY Times Wednesday (and today in the Washington Post; later this week in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Washington Times) that takes on President Obama, listing scores of famed economists who don’t agree with the president “that we need action by our government … to jumpstart the economy.”
I also appreciated the words of Alice Rivlin and other Democrats in raising concern about this huge “Generational Theft Act of 2009” (as Michelle Malkin has dubs this thing).
In testimony before the House Budget Committee yesterday, Alice M. Rivlin, who was President Bill Clinton's budget director, suggested splitting the plan, implementing its immediate stimulus components now and taking more time to plan the longer-term transformative spending to make sure it is done right. "Such a long-term investment program should not be put together hastily and lumped in with the anti-recession package. The elements of the investment program must be carefully planned and will not create many jobs right away," said Rivlin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. The risk, she said, is that "money will be wasted because the investment elements were not carefully crafted." And Oregon Democrat Rep. Peter DeFazio:
"Every penny of the $825 billion is borrowed against the future of our kids and grandkids, and so the question is: What benefit are we providing them? What are we doing for the country? It's the difference between real investment that will serve the nation for 30, 50 years and tax cuts, and that's a very poor tradeoff," said Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.). "I go to my district and people say, 'Yeah, I can use 10 extra bucks a week, but I would rather see more substantial investment.' We've gone through a couple bubbles that were borrowing and consumer-driven. We want a recovery that's solid and based in investment and productivity, and that points us at building things that will serve us decades to come." Please Senate, listen to these folks. I’m anxious to hear how well Representative Kagen listened to his constituents – and wonder how the calls and e-mails to his office tallied, for and against the bailout bill. We’ll see if we can find that out.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
I am very disappointed in Rep. Kagen. I was hoping he'd vote against it, as he surprised me and voted against the bailout bills last fall.
It is unreal how much pork is in this bill.
Ben (Thu Jan 29 12:14:47 2009)
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