January 26th, 2010 • 3:22 amIs Walz Minnesota’s Porkmeister?
When it comes to voting for huge chunks of pork, no Minnesota congressman can outdo Tim Walz. Thus far, he’s voted for the failed stimulus bill plus he’s voted for both omnibus spending bills. The Omnibus Bill for FY2009 increased spending by 11%. The FY2010 Omnibus Bill increased federal spending by 12%. Now Tim Walz wants to spend $175,000,000,000 on Stim II:
Asked Monday if he expected any Republicans to cross the aisle and vote for a new jobs-focused stimulus package, regardless of what was in it, Walz replied: “I don’t expect to have any. If we voted to say today was Monday, I don’t think we’d get many [Republican] votes.”
House Republicans stood united against the first stimulus bill in January, a disciplined opposition that has largely continued to hold the line on major issues like health care reform, when all but one Republican voted against the Democrats’ bill.
Walz said he’s looking for the new bill to be “more focused on transportation,” to the point that it’s “the core of the jobs bill.” If I had my way, I would have had more transportation funding the first time,” Walz said.
Rep. Walz doesn’t get it. Transportation spending won’t get the economy humming again. Getting out of the way of entrepreneurs will get the economy humming. Rep. Walz refuses to get out of the way of small businesses. What’s worse is that he won’t stop spending money we don’t have.
Transportation projects take time. You don’t just sign a transportation bill one day and the next day, there’s jobs being created. First, you need to get a list of transportation projects, then prioritize which projects are most important. After that, the projects must be bid on and the winning bid determined. Only after all that can a project get started.
In real terms, Stim II won’t pass before late spring. It might not pass until mid-summer. By the time the bids are accepted and the projects scheduled, John Boehner will be the new Speaker and Tim Walz will be a distant memory.
The question that Tim Walz should be forced to answer is why he’s refused to stand up for small businesses. He’s voted against them when he voted for the Cap and Tax bill. He’s voted against them when he voted for the tax increases included in the Pelosicare legislation.
Standing up for small businesses is the way to get the economy creating jobs. Spreading the pork around didn’t work last time. It won’t work this time. The only things we got from the Democrats’ first stimulus bill were massive deficits, big payoffs to the public employees’ unions and a disfunctional website that theoretically tracked stimulus spending but that hasn’t been updated in months.
Maybe it’s just me but that doesn’t sound like we got our money’s worth.
When Tim Walz was sworn in, unemployment was 4.6 percent. Today, it’s 10 percent. We’re in a deep recession. The deficit for Walz’s first year in office, FY2007, was roughly $160,000,000,000. The deficit for FY2009 was $1,420,000,000,000.
Are CD-1 voters better off today than they were 4 years ago? I wouldn’t bet on it.
Technorati: Tim Walz, Stimulus, Cap And Trade, Pelosicare, Tax Increases, Pork, Recession, Unemployment, Democrats, Election 2010
Entries RSS2 Feed
You keep talking about entrepreneurs.
Can you name two?
Spending is not the problem, big exploitative Wall Street banking is. They manipulate the economy, create cycles for their benefit, and directly steal public money by holding the economy hostage and claiming they stand too big to fail.
Bernanke has to go. That’s step one. Then the Volcker based reforms need implementation.
If finance is set up to encourage your entrepreneurs, Gary, to allow them to prosper and not get fleeced by the venture capitalists [a fraction of which are well intentioned and fair with a larger fraction using finance as a weapon to loot truly creative people] would be a step I see neither party willing to take. I see Obama poised to try. The problem is any new regulatory scheme will become as co-opted and corrupted and owned by those it should regulate, the same problems with regualtion efforts in the nation over time.
The recent Supreme Court nonsense will be part of the ongoing preeminence of big money wall street.
Big government is better than big Wall Street malefactors of great wealth.
Comment by eric z • 26Jan2010 @ 6:24 am
Put another way, it’s time to break up Goldman Sachs, and to reenact Glass Steagall.
A simple test, Gary. Are you better off now, economically, than you were before the GOP controlled congress led by GOP activist Phil Gramm repealed Glass Steagall?
Is the nation better off or not. The economy did not get horsed up overnight, and the Wall Street stranglehold on it was not something that arose by accident.
It was engineered by Republicans.
They are the benefactors of Wall Street money and the good soldiers of big money that march as they are told.
I realize you consider yourself in a reform effort over a part of that past GOP script, and that there is dissatisfaction in GOP grass roots, but the bosses are still boss and that’s why Joe Repya’s become an independent candidate for governor.
He has figured out the Republican house cannot be changed from within. I am surprised Ron Paul has not yet left that fold.
Comment by eric z • 26Jan2010 @ 6:33 am
Your implication that Tim Walz is somehow responsible for unemployment is saying he has some control function on international finance.
That’s fantasy.
That is the functional equivalent of Michele Bachmann going to Pastor Mac’s and say God chose her to be in Congress.
Pure spun fantasy.
Comment by eric z • 26Jan2010 @ 6:38 am
Speaking of pure spun fantasy Eric….
First - I can name several entrepreneurs - many of them in my own family and ALL of them hold these “reforms” in utter disdain. They have all had to lay off employees due to the President and Congresses “reforms”. Many of those laid off have worked for the family FOR YEARS! Some of these family members voted for Obama, some for McCain and ALL have no faith in a future for their businesses based on the actions of Congress and the Obama Administration! These are not “Wall Street malefactors” or people who are trying to game the system. These are people who are trying to make live better for their family and for their employees families!
In answer to your Glass Steagall question we (as individuals and a country) were MUCH BETTER OFF until the Democrats (and President Bush to be fair) started spending our future. But remember - the budget deficit when President Bush left office was “only” $400 BILLION while now, 12 months to the day (almost) after President Obama took office the deficit is OVER ONE TRILLION DOLLARS.
LL
Comment by Lady Logician • 26Jan2010 @ 2:48 pm