Beshear/Obama plan irks Conway

By Leland Conway

Governor Beshear has approached President Barack Obama with his hands out for some stimulus action, and why not? He’s only doing what all but three other state governors are doing. Only Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Rick Perry of Texas, and South Carolina’s Mark Sanford have refused to ask for federal bailout funds for their states.

Some may think that Beshear might as well get some for us, since everyone else is doing it. They may even think that spreading all of this cash around is actually a good idea. I ask you to look at this from a different angle.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is nothing more than the fattest ham ever smoked in Washington. In this bill there are earmarks that would make even the most fiscally irresponsible scratch their heads. $640 million dollars for new climate change computer modeling technology. Why would we need that? I thought climate change was a proven fact – what would be the justification for doing any more climate models? How many jobs will this create?

There’s $1 billion dollars for extra census surveys. How will it stimulate the economy to count ourselves over and over again?

There is $650 million more dollars for additional $40 coupons for the purchase of digital converter boxes for analog TVs. How will this stave off economic disaster?

$6 million dollars have been set aside for snow machines in Minnesota, and millions more for a Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

We must remember that government has nothing that it doesn’t first take away from us. This is not a stimulus package, but rather an economic tranquilizer gun. Imagine an even larger portion your future productivity being wiped out to pay for climate computers, senseless people counting and digital converter boxes. Better yet, imagine a portion of your children’s future wealth being ripped away from them before they even start to build it.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment act will “recover” more of your proceeds and “invest” them in a bloated, bureaucratic government, with arms too fat to reach over its own head.

Economists estimate that the combined cost of the bailout and upcoming stimulus packages will top 2.5 trillion dollars. Where will this money come from? The answer is frighteningly clear. Government has no ability to produce wealth, only the ability to take ours by force. Those of us who are already carrying the greatest share of the economic burden will be asked to shoulder even more.

There are pundits who will point to the $275 billion dollars in tax cuts in this behemoth spending bill. But Washington Democrats struck out the most important tax cut contained in the original legislation. Even President Barack Obama recognized that employers needed tax relief in order to prevent massive layoffs. But Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid struck a per employee tax credit for businesses that hired new workers or avoided layoffs. Giving no explanation for this total failure in logic, they just took out their knife and started slashing. Perhaps they thought it would better stimulate the economy to spend that money on protecting the endangered nests of the Red Crested, Web footed Cave Willow?

While our governor gets in line with the rest of the beggars, remember that this stimulus is no stimulus at all. It is the greatest perpetration of theft on the American taxpayer in the history of our nation. As Congressman Ron Paul said, “we’re going down the road to nationalization, without even a whimper.” This stimulus package is in fact no stimulus at all, but an economic tranquilizer.