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12.31.2009 0

Too Hot Not To Note: Passing second stimulus package will not help

  • On: 01/06/2010 09:27:59
  • In: Fiscal Responsibility

  • ALG Editor’s Note: In the following featured editorial, The Detroit News believes that a second stimulus package will not help, and rightfully so.

    Editorial: Passing second stimulus package will not help

    Having failed to create the promised jobs with the first $787 billion stimulus package, congressional Democrats want another $174 billion to spend pretty much the same way.

    The dubiously named “Jobs for Main Street Act” would grab the bailout money repaid by banks and use it to bail out states and fund a variety of social programs that would create very few direct jobs.

    This would be good money chasing bad. The Democrats who control Congress have apparently taken no economic lesson from the failure of massive federal spending to put people back to work. A December survey of purchasing managers by Wayne State University and the Institute for Supply Management-Southeastern Michigan found that while the regional economy seems to be improving somewhat, employment continues to decline.

    Blame that on the inability of businesses to get loans thanks, in part, to a credit market that remains extremely cautious because of Congress’ regulatory frenzy and uncertainty over future tax rates.

    Taking the federal government deeper into deficit to finance another round of reckless spending will not ease credit or boost confidence.

    As with the first package, Congress plans to send nearly half of the money to the states to shore up their welfare and education budgets. As Michigan proves, using federal dollars to plug state budget holes doesn’t create jobs.

    There also will be billions more for summer jobs and adult service programs, which have little impact on long-term employment.
    Congress promised when it approved the bank bailout to use the loan repayments to reduce the deficit. We should have known better. Congress would never save a dollar it could spend. Instead, it wants to use the money to further expand a government that is growing out of control.

    If the money is burning a hole in its pocket, Congress should use it to reduce tax rates and allow Americans to stimulate the economy the old-fashioned way — by spending their own money.

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