Porkulous or Stimulus (Update)

Earlier this year (February to be exact), I wrote a piece (check it out here) about the "stimulous" plan that the newly inaugurated Obama administration crammed...er...passed into law. Needless to say, I cast a skeptical eye on the bill as it simply had way too much government waste included in it AND the money did not flow fast enough to give the economy the jolt it desparately needed. It is now becoming even more clear that the Obama administration did not pass the best bill possible as the economy remains in the tank, unemployement continues to increase (and the rate of unemployment is rapidly approaching double digits) and there is some loose talk of yet another "stimulous" plan (seriously, this is no joke)! Check out the recent interview on CNBC with Art Cashin of UBS ("stimulous is part Hoax..." WOW!):

To shed a bit more light on this, Joe Biden recently admitted that he and Obama "mis-read" how bad the economy was (here is one of the many news stories on the topic). It's somewhat laughable that he can suggest this and get away with it! Don't you recall all of the speeches about how this was the worst economy since the Great Depression (hard to say they mis-read it, eh)? Here's one example from a January 2009 speech from Obama (read the entire speech via the link):

"Throughout America’s history, there have been some years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare. Then there are the years that come along once in a generation – the kind that mark a clean break from a troubled past, and set a new course for our nation. This is one of those years. We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime..."

That sounds pretty dire! Well, the economy IS pretty bad (it's at least as bad as the early 80's and maybe worse than that) and I just don't buy that they "mis-read" it when, speech after speech, Obama talked about the "worst economy since the Great Depression." I think it's more likely that Biden and the Obama administration continue to try convince the American people that none of this is their fault even after they've ramped up government spending and passed an enormous spending bill with a "Stimulous" title on it. To be fair, they did inherit a pretty lousy situation and things were clearly getting worse when he took office. But, the American people are tiring of the blame game (Obama's approval rating is down to the low 50% range when it was in the mid to upper 60% range when he took office) and the ineffectual nature of Obama's economic proposals to date (trends in his approval rating prove this out - click here for Rasmussen data).

We were sold this "stimulous" package on the promise that it was necessary to turn things around and that it would bring us out of a tailspin. Unfortunately, it now appears that we were sold a bill of goods (don't say I didn't warn you in the February 2009 blog post).

I sincerely hope that Obama will refocus on what really matters right now (HINT: "IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!!!") and drop plans for massive spending on healthcare and taxes green house gases (aka Cap and Trade). Making the case that we can't fix the economy unless we fix healthcare and the environment just doesn't make any sense. Let's get this economy going BEFORE dealing with these other issues. After all, if the economy (aka current and future tax base) continues to shrink, we definitely won't be able to afford any of these other initiatives.