"Porkulus", one more time

 

 

"Oh yes, the little piggies were all at the trough, ready for more, more and then more again..."

As most of us can remember, early in the Presidency of our current leader, an idea was hatched. It was thought to really "kick start" our stalled economy, some WPA type spending would be in order. Thus became the Stimulus Bill. Actually, that is not entirely true. We had two stimulus bills. The first one in February of 2008 was called the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. This bill, valued at around $150B was suppose to shore up the economy to head off a recession.

Well it did not work. We still had the Great Recession. So what next? Another stimulus bill with the prodding of our new President. This bill was known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and valued at $850B. Obama just doubled down (and then some) on the bill President Bush signed the previous year. This new bill was nicknamed either the Stimulus Bill (or as Rush called it, the "Porkulus Bill"). It was tailor made for "shovel ready jobs". In reality it did....nothing.

Last night there was a terrible accident with an Amtrak train on its way from Washington to New York City. The train derailed, people were killed and injured, and there was much damage. It only took a few hours for the blame game to start. And the culprit? The Republicans of course, for not spending enough on infrastructure. Forget the fact in 2008 and 2009 we spent $1T on what was supposed to be infrastructure. The Republicans were smart enough in 2009 to know the "Porkulus Bill" was a sham and not of them voted for it. Regardless of that fact, the lap dog media as well as the Dems are still blaming the Party of Lincoln for our dated infrastructure.

Only a fool today would say we don't need some vastly needed improvements and upgrades to our infrastructure. The trick is how to pay for them when we are drowning in debt. Also (and some pundit brought this up on the news this morning), the government has a very bad reputation in building "bridges to nowhere", and "gold plated" highways. In short, we need improvements, but our government has proven over and over again to be VERY poor stewards of our tax dollars.

It is always nice to finish up a problem statement and then offer some possible solutions. On this one I have nothing. I keep coming up empty. Any solution I have thought of is full of consequences, both intended and unintended. Truthfully, to upgrade our infrastructure as much as the American Society of Civil Engineer say we should by the year 2020, it would cost a whopping $3.6T. The best of the bad alternatives would be to bite the bullet and really inflate the debt by spending it and getting it done with.

We will keep limping along until the next event, the next wreck, the next tragedy. We have had our chances to fix things, to make them better. But we did not. Now we are stuck with a house with 30 year old appliances, and no repair plan. It is no wonder so many people are skeptical about our future these days.