Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Million Dollar Test

I have this theory about government and how politicians work regarding money. They go through the process of "authoring" a Bill, say it's the Stimulus Bill; they have a cover on top with a fancy name (eg. "Save the US Economy from Going down the Crapper Act of 2010") and then the back page where the signatures go. These are the parts that the actual authoring Senator or Congress-critter actually write. Everything in between the front cover and back cover come from one or many (hundreds sometimes) of Special Interest groups. They take turns writing in there what they want in the way of a Tax Credit, or Tax forgiveness, or outright campaign contribution/bribe offset (known as Subsidies in Washington speak). This "Bill" is then taken to the floor and amendments are then attached. These are those pesky parasitic riders on each Bill that have nothing to do with the Bill itself, added by the Senator or Congress-critter that found a new campaign contributor but could not give them their offset in the last Bill, so they gloam on to this Bill with a rider. After a bunch of these votes to look you know democratic and all that, they vote and pass the Bill. It becomes law but no one but the ones that put text into the Bill know what it really means and of course it does not work as the fancy high minded Title might lead you to believe it was supposed to do. All of us out here, the taxpayers get to surrender more of our hard earned money to all of those Special Interest groups that helped write the Bill and the Senators and Congress-critters go saying they voted for this fancy titled, high minded Bill. They look good and we remain in that bent over position, gripping our ankles.

I have this test that I use to tell me if a Bill being contemplated will work or not. I call it the Million Dollar Test. It's pretty simple too. Here is how it works: You have a problem that needs Congressional Action. Will you getting $1 million Dollars make the problem go away? If yes; Can the Bill. If not, call in the Military. There, problem fixed.

Let's try this out on say that famous Stimulus Bill of 2009, you know the one that was passed in record time last year, 9 days after PresBO was sworn in.

Problem: Economy about to tank, we need jobs in all sectors to prop up business and return financial stability to the economy.

The Congressional Bill Title: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Cost: $787 Billion Dollars

Effect: Nil, naught, squat, zilch, zip, or insignificant. Some jobs to non-existent Congressional Districts and even Zip Codes that don't exist. Cost per job created or saved estimated at between $160,000 per job to as high as $246,000 per job (using numbers from Recovery.gov, the Administration's own web site).

Yeah, it's a mess and it is just like throwing away $787 Billion dollars. Might have well simply burned it in a huge bon fire on the 4th of July. Ok, let's try my little test.

New Bill Title: Plain and Simple Stimulus Act of 2009

Fix: Give every living Man and Woman above the age of 18 years who is NOT in Jail and who is a Legal Resident of the United States a $1million dollar grant. No strings attached except that those monies have to be spent here in the US, no moving it off shore.

Impact: Just think of how many of those pesky failed Home Loans would go away? Guess how many people could pay for College? How many would go out and buy new cars, new homes or spend money on their existing home? Dare I say a lot.

Cost: Somewhere around $200 million dollars give or take. Maybe $250 million or $300 million still it would be way less than $1Billion dollars much less $787 Billion.

Effect: Well, let's just say it would have gone a long way to stimulating the economy and would have prevented a lot of other mayhem as wall. GM and Chrysler would not have had to be taken over by the government, Mortgage backed securities would not have gone in the tank and a lot of people would have been employed in all segments of our society. Tax revenues to the States and Local Governments would have not dropped and they would not need to be bailed out as they do now.

All around not too bad except for the deficit payments on something like this. But, $300 million in the hole is a lot better than $787 Billion in the hole and that is the difference especially when you see who is benefitting from what got passed.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is a monumental failure. The Health Care Bill will be another monumental failure as well as you can buy some really good Health Care and/or Insurance for $1 million bucks.

Plain and Simple. It's just too much for those jackass's in Washington won't go for it because they get nothing out of it.

BT: Jimmy T sends

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