Democrats Split On Whether Or Not We Need More “Stimulus” Spending
Some want to talk about more spending, others aren’t quite ready to do that just yet.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Tuesday became the latest Democrat to open the door to a second stimulus package. But over in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid wants nothing to do with that fight.
“To me, there’s no showing that a second stimulus is needed,” Reid said. Asked if the first stimulus needs to be retooled, Reid said, “We’re doing fine” with the first stimulus package, a $787 billion bill passed in January.
Hoyer, speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday, sounded more amenable to the idea of another economic package.
“I think we need to be open to whether we need additional action,” Hoyer said.
But Hoyer cautioned it was too early to tell whether the last stimulus program was enough to fully jolt the nation’s staggering economy back to life.
I think it’s funny how even the Democrats who won’t admit that the last “stimulus” spending spree was a miserable failure still seem to think we need another one. If they don’t know if the last one worked or not (it hasn’t and won’t) why on earth do they want another one?
The answer is because this isn’t so much about economic rescue as it’s about politicians just spending money because they like to spend money. Democrats aren’t hedging on a second stimulus spending spree because they aren’t sure if the last one worked or not; they’re hedging because they’re not sure if they can squeeze enough political capital out of their fear-mongering about the recession to pass another boondoggle spending spree. Rahm Emanuel said that you can never let a good crisis go to waste, and that’s what Democrats are mulling right now.
Can they squeeze another massive spending bill out of the current crisis, or have they already depleted its usefulness?
