What Stimulus?
Monday, February 2nd, 2009 By Marc Kilmer
From the Wall Street Journal:
Lobbyists for industry and labor are gearing up to add costly proposals Tuesday to the Senate’s nearly $890 billion economic stimulus plan.
Florida citrus growers, California wine growers and a range of agricultural interests are pushing a tiny change that would allow farmers to more quickly depreciate new fields. High-tech and pharmaceutical companies want to save billions in taxes by including a plan that would allow them to bring overseas profits back home at lower tax rates. Labor unions are pressing Congress to make sure that new government funding for green technology results in jobs with good pay and benefits for workers.
And, of course, Ohio is getting national attention for its elected officials who are just salivating at the prospect of all kinds of new money pouring into their hands. Can anyone really say this is a stimulus bill any more? Why don’t Congressional leaders just come out and call it the spending bill that it really is. As I mentioned here, these projects and tax breaks may be worthwhile, but they aren’t stimulus.
Tags: government spending, Stimulus plan
