RSS 2.0 FeedStimulating Michelle Malkin and Heritage
by Stephen Gordon
Michelle Malkin brings our attention to a really good graphic from the Heritage Foundation pertaining to how the bailout will impact the typical family.
From Heritage:
Many people have trouble picturing such an enormous amount of money. To put it into perspective, $825 billion is worth approximately $10,520 for each family in the United States, or $22,445 for each family with children under the age of 18.
…
Average spending for all family groups in the United States is similar to that of families with children. On average, families annually spend:* $2,330 on apparel and services,
* $3,595 on health care,
* $4,322 on food at home, and
* $11,657 annually on shelter.If all families were asked to equally shoulder the burden of the $825 billion “stimulus” package, it would be like asking them to take on an amount of debt equivalent to what they spend on food, clothing, and health care — or most of what they spend on shelter — for an entire year.
I’ve never noticed similar math or charts coming from Malkin or Heritage about a federal expenditure which is in the same general ball park: the current cost of the war in Iraq.
While I applaud both Malkin and Heritage for speaking out against the bailout, I find their general silence (there were some reasonable anti-Bush whispers from time to time) about Bush spending and Bush policy revealing. I’m sure they wouldn’t be so opposed to the bailout du jour if Bush and the previous Congress were still in power.
UPDATE: Here’s the most recent (IAW Drudge, at least) GOP statement on the latest bailout:
“The Democrat bill won’t stimulate anything but more government and more debt,” Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the Republican conference, said Tuesday.
Sounds great so far — like something Ronald Reagan or damn near any libertarian might have said.
“The slow and wasteful spending in the House Democrat bill is a disservice to millions of Americans who want to see this Congress take immediate action to get this economy moving again.”
They just don’t get it. The only “immediate action” thoughtful people want Congress to make is to dramatically cut spending — and then cut spending even more. It doesn’t seem likely that Republicans will attempt this approach, though.
According to the “cost of the war” link listed by Mr. Gordon, we still have about $300 BILLION left to spend on the war before we equal this “stimulus package.”
Comment by Tom Dougherty — January 29, 2009 @ 10:08 amSo why weren’t the Republicans complaining when Bush and his cronies wastefully spent $3 TRILLION on an unjust war that put Shiite extremists in control of Iraq, left tens of thousands of dead Iraqis and several thousand dead American troops, and created more Muslim terrorists?? At least Obama is spending money on the American people.
Comment by Candy — January 29, 2009 @ 9:44 pm