Buoying Bureaucracy
‘Stimulus’: The president has sent a letter to congressional Democrats asking for a $50 billion bailout for “teachers, police and firefighters,” all to support economic recovery. When is this shell game going to end?
Calling it an “emergency,” President Obama urged lawmakers to approve the new chunk of cash as quickly as possible. Inaction will surely lead to layoffs that would slow the recovery. But even Democrats aren’t buying it. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, no doubt thinking of November, rather accurately noted that his chamber has a bad case of “spending fatigue.”
Fact is, Congress already shoveled out $787 billion in federal stimulus spending supposedly to “save” the jobs of all these teachers, police officers, firefighters and, more to the point, bureaucrats and regulators who’ve bloated the public payrolls and driven cities and states to insolvency.