Another day, another stimulus package

The White House has continued to claim that the $787 billion stimulus bill is a success so far. Plus, only about a third of the money has been spent, and the rate of spending is expected to pick up during the winter. If that’s the case, why do we need another stimulus bill?

The next stimulus would include tax breaks for small businesses, more money spent on transportation and infrastructure, and a “Cash for Caulkers” program which would stress weatherization and energy efficiency projects for homeowners. So, how much would this cost, and how would he pay for it?

Right now, no cost estimates have been released, but it’s safe to say it will be in the hundreds of billions. So, how will this be paid for? The full funding mechanism isn’t yet know, but it looks like $200 billion will be used from TARP. So rather than return that money to reduce our massive deficit, we will keep on spending. I think Senator John Cornyn summed it up nicely:

“Now, with unemployment at 10 percent, the President proposes another special interest slush fund using ‘savings’ from the TARP program. This is absurd,’ said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “TARP should be shut down as soon as possible and any unused funds should be returned to taxpayers by reducing our $1.4 trillion deficit.”