It's the Stimulus Package, Stupid!

Welcome to the Independent Watchdog--one of the few blogs with political commentary that is not related to the notorious "Republicrats" or "Demopublicans" that seem to be running this great land known as the United States of America to the ground with their constant partisan bickering.

This is going to have to be a quick post about the stimulus package since i don't have much time to go into much detail. I'll do a formal introduction later.

Lets get to it.....

First of all, Barack Obama is doing something "Dubya" was once guilty of: using fear tactics against the American people. The only difference is Bush used it regarding foreign policy and the war against terror to get Republicans elected while Obama is trying to get the economy back into shape. However, I have to agree with the Republicans on this one. This kind of thing takes time and I think the next Thursday deadline that was recently reported seems more than sensible and the concerns that conservative Democrats and Republicans bring up warrant proper debate in order to cut wasteful spending. It is time for the moderates and centrists to rise up to do what is right! Economic recovery affects anyone in the country and not just one political party so we need a bipartisan bill that will providing funding for sensible projects that would get our economy moving again.

Eric Cantor, a Republicans Representative from Virginia makes a good point: “This was not a stimulus bill. It was a spending bill.”


To this, Obama states “So then you get the argument, well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill. What do you think a stimulus is? That’s the whole point. No, seriously. That’s the point.”

I'm sorry, but Obama pissed me off with this one. Yes, he is right that we have to spend in order for our economy to recover--that is obvious, but there something called wasteful spending and there are certain things that were once in the bill that can be considered exactly that. One perfect example is that of the planned parenthood--or lets just call it what it really is--bailing out the abortion industry. Abortion is not something that belongs in a stimulus package and if liberal Democrats want to debate abortion--do it in the future. Now is not the time! I will talk more about my view on abortion in a future post.

....so this is a list of things that I think MUST be included in the this stimulus package:

1. DO NOT GIVE ANY TAX CUTS OR BAILOUT ANY BANKS AND OTHER BIG BUSINESS. Okay, I can see the reason to bailout banks but any other company that has the guts to fly CEO's in private jets to DC to request billions of dollars deserve to fail--yes, I'm talking to you, auto industry.
2. Require close oversight over how the bailout money that was already given out is used.
3. Of course, the many construction projects to fix our bridges, roads, and other necessary infrastructure, but NOT the National Mall.
4. Universal healthcare should wait until later. This would delay the bill even more.
5. Make some kind of plan to help the world economy get back to full swing. It is after all our fault. We are, after all, a GLOBAL economy.
6. Bailout the homeowners--come one, the American people are the real ones suffering here!!
7. Invest in broadband technology and hybrid cars (this is a great time to start weeding ourselves off foreign oil).
8. I'm not exactly a supporter of the Department of Education. It is something that we do not need and something like this can be left to the individual state departments. Imagine how much money our government will save if you cut this out. However, we should give money to states to states that need it to improve education, especially in the science area.

That is all I can think at the top of my head and with the time I have now. I will add to this list later.