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From the WSJ:

“Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policymakers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth. –Statement signed by more than 200 academic economists”

I really don’t like this new stimulus plan going through Congress right now. Seriously, this does not sound like stimulus. First of all, not enough tax cuts in the right places. We need to cut taxes to the point where it changes people’s decision-calculus. Also known as changing the marginal tax rate. This encourages productivity and spending. I can accept, we may need to increase government spending, although the evidence is shaky that it has an effect. But why is Congress proposing spending money on things that won’t occur for another 3+ years? That is not stimulus.

Honestly, this bill seems like 800 billion dollars of pork. Less than 5% is going toward infrastructure and transportation projects.

Here is the WSJ break down on some of these projects:

Here’s another lu-lu: Congress wants to spend $600 million more for the federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3 billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles. Congress also wants to spend $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities. The Smithsonian is targeted to receive $150 million; we love the Smithsonian, too, but this is a job creator?

Another “stimulus” secret is that some $252 billion is for income-transfer payments — that is, not investments that arguably help everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all. There’s $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don’t pay income tax. While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, they aren’t job creators.

This will cost a lot of political capital for Republicans in Congress, but I believe that it is a worth-while fight. Obama was promising bipartisanship. Some of his cabinet choices made it seem like he would follow through with that promise. This stimulus bill is the Democrats checking items off of their agenda from the past 20 years, not an attempt to get this economy moving.