Gregory D.

Lee

Read Greg's bio and previous columns here

January 23, 2009

Obama and Pelosi: Throwing Good Money After Bad

President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi say an $825 billion stimulus package will either “create or save” three million jobs. Republicans did the math and discovered each of the three million jobs will cost taxpayers $275,000. Yikes! The Democrats can never more deny they are tax-and-spenders.

The idea of spending that much good money on top of all the bad money that has already been spent on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is patently ridiculous. If the Democrats want to spend that much money to create or save jobs, how successful the stimulus package is must be measured. Any increase in the number of jobs after the stimulus package is in place can probably be attributed to it. But how do you measure the number of jobs allegedly saved?

President Obama and Speaker Pelosi are laying the groundwork now for the stimulus package’s failure to create jobs by claiming it can also “save” as many as three million jobs, even if there is a rise in the unemployment rate. I can just hear them saying next year, “Wow, it sure is a good thing we spent $825 billion to stimulate the economy. Otherwise we would have lost three million more jobs!” Claiming jobs will be saved is ludicrous because it can’t be proven or disproven. You can only prove how many jobs were created.

The country has never experienced an economic situation like it is in now, so Congress should focus on what has proven to work – tax cuts for small businesses, expanding domestic oil production and eliminating capital gains taxes. Instead, Democrats are using the economic downturn as an excuse to expand, among other things, government and welfare programs by throwing more money at state and local governments for their schools and deteriorating infrastructure. They are using the proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as the vehicle to fund every pet project there ever was, while claiming the bill does not contain earmarks. It doesn’t have to. The entire bill is an earmark!  

Managing the failing TARP money will be Treasury Secretary designate Timothy Geithner, who it turns out, understands the benefits of tax cuts. It seems that while employed by the International Money Fund (IMF), he made “an honest mistake” when he forgot to pay tens of thousands of dollars in federal income taxes, as the IMF warned him he was obligated to do. Just a “hiccup,” his supporters say. Then it was revealed he erroneously deducted his children’s summer camp as a write off, and also retained an illegal alien as his housekeeper. The media are giving him a complete pass, and Democratic senators at his confirmation hearing didn’t even lift an eyebrow about a man who, if confirmed, will be in charge of the Internal Revenue Service.

Either Mr. Geithner thought he wouldn’t get caught not paying taxes, or his “honest mistake” illustrates how complex the federal income tax system is when a person with his background as a former Clinton Administration Treasury official cannot file an accurate income tax return.

If President Obama wants to bring change to the country, one sure way would be to scrap the current ambiguous tax code in favor of a flat tax. No deductions, no B.S., no exceptions. This way Mr. Geithner would never make another tax mistake, and everyone would have the opportunity to invest in the country. How much you pay would be based on what you earn, rather than who you are.

When the poor start paying income taxes, you can bet they will be the first to complain the next time Democrats propose increases.

Gregory D. Lee is a nationally syndicated columnist for North Star Writers Group and can be reached through his web site: www.gregorydlee.com.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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