Malcolm Cutchins: Stimulus plan reckless, undermining

I have a Snoopy tie that I often wear near April 15 in “honor” of taxes being due on that date. On the tie are a few dollar signs, some calculators and Snoopy hard at work. Last weekend I wore the tie early, a tongue-in-cheek “honor” for the stimulus bill followed by the “White House Conference on Fiscal Responsibility.”

It’s quite late for this administration to show “fiscal responsibility,” and especially trust in the legislative process. With over 9,000 earmarks in the forthcoming budget, it will take some doing to restore both in the future.

The Heritage Association sent an open letter to Congress and the president just before this latest stimulus bill was narrowly passed by the House and the Senate. A few excerpts from the letter follow, statements that probably convey the thoughts of over fifty percent of citizens and over 90 percent of our Alabama representatives in Washington.

“(We) have never (in a span of 35 years) encountered legislation with such far-reaching and revolutionary policy implications as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act currently before Congress. And never have we seen a bill more cloaked in secrecy or more withdrawn from open public exposure and honest debate.”

This bill is “the single most expensive bill ever proposed, this measure calls for a massive expansion of the federal government’s reach into the day-to-day life of virtually every citizen, business and civic organization in the nation.”

There have been “snap votes on a 1,200-plus page bill that no one — repeat, no one — has had a chance to read in its entirety, much less digest and deliberate… it would unquestionably rewrite the social contract between the American people and their government.”

It “will mean fundamental changes in our society. In many instances, the bill would establish policies that directly challenge widely-held American values … We are appalled that Congress is even contemplating such profound changes with so little openness and due diligence.

“This reckless approach to governance can only undermine public faith in our elected officials and our government.”

Many have responded with feelings that run the gamut of the synonyms for apoplectic: enraged, furious, irate, seething, angry and others. Some commentators have referred to this reckless congressional spending as “looting” of the national treasury. By the way, the federal government doesn’t fill the national treasury. It is filled from (dare I write it) PROFIT, and of course, low taxes on all kinds of increasing income.

Obama has increased the deficit by one-third with this stimulus bill, then proclaimed he’ll “cut it in half by 2013.” We better brush up on our fractions and our calculations of interest.

If you heard President Obama’s speech Tuesday night, and did not hear the Republican response by Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, you may have become over-optimistic about what the federal government can do. If Obama’s speech was rated a 7, Jindal’s was a 9 1/2 with better solutions for our problems.

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins is an emeritus professor of engineering at Auburn and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.