Stimulus package or welfare package?

February 5, 2008

 

There’s an old joke in Washington.  A camel is a horse built by a congressional committee.  The behemoth of a bill that made it out of the house last week continues to grow.  Now it looks more like an elephant.  I do believe the Democrats in congress have mistaken welfare for stimulus.  The house version already gave tax refunds to those who don’t pay taxes.  In the real world, only those who fund should get refunds but this isn’t the real world we’re dealing with.

 

No sooner had the $150 billion package come off the house assembly line than Democrats in the senate sought to tack on $30 billion more.  They wanted heating subsidies for low-income families, mortgage counseling for homeowners at risk of foreclosure, more food stamps, tax credits for alternative-energy heating and an extension of unemployment benefits.  These are “things we really believe in,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  That’s nice, Senator Reid, but that’s not what a stimulus package is all about.

 

A stimulus package should be designed to stimulate the economy, not big government.  The theory is you give people back some of their money and they’ll go spend it and spur the economy.  I must admit that such schemes are almost always purely psychological.  The problem is, those making over $75,000 as individuals or $150,000 as couples won’t see squat.  Didn’t they put money in?  Didn’t they contribute?  Wouldn’t they stimulate the economy just like everyone else?  Ah, but then the Democrats in Congress wouldn’t be able to play class warfare, their favorite game.

 

“You can't think of a single justification for why a senior living on $11,000 a year on Social Security shouldn't get a check while a working family that's making $140,000 should,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told CNSNews.com.  Sure I can.  The folks making $140,000 a year paid taxes into the system.  It’s doubtful that anyone making $11,000 a year paid anything into the system.  This is a tax rebate, Mr. Durbin.  It’s for those who pay taxes.  But the Democrats in congress just can’t seem to get that through their heads.

 

Or, maybe they do understand.  Maybe they really know how silly they sound but they know they don’t sound silly to the people to whom they’re trying to redistribute the wealth.  Make no mistake about it, that’s exactly what this is.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I certainly believe we should be taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves.  We already do that and in spades.  While the poverty rate hovers around 13 percent, our welfare system gobbles up almost 30 percent of the budget.  By contrast, the defense budget is around 21 percent.  (By the way, the defense budget under JFK was 50 percent of the budget)  No one can reasonably argue that we don’t go above and beyond the call of duty to help the poor yet that’s what the unreasonable Democrats in congress do over and over again. 

 

According to the IRS, the top 5 percent of wage earners now pays nearly 60 percent of the income taxes.  Contrary to the rhetoric coming out of Washington, the rich already pay far more than their fair share.  Conversely, according to IRS figures, the bottom 50 percent of wage earners pays less than 4 percent of the income taxes yet it’s that bottom 50 percent that congress insists on giving another tax break.

 

Far be it from me to complain when the government wants to give us some of our money back but rebates should be reserved to those who give, not those who take.