Support For “Economic Stimulus” Spending Spree Is Tanking

So says Hans Bader at OpenMarket.org:

Opposition to the $800 billion stimulus package continues to rise, and polls show support for it has fallen to 42%. Independent swing-voters oppose the “stimulus” by a whopping 23 percent margin. While Obama is still popular, the stimulus package he backs no longer is. Even pro-bailout economists like Martin Feldstein who previously supported it are now turning against it, realizing that the bill is chock full of pork. More than 200 economists have signed a petition against the package. Even the Washington Post, which strongly supported Obama in 2008, admits that the plan may not work and that there is no consensus among economists for the bill.

Here is what’s really troubling:

Meanwhile, state governments — the chief beneficiary of the stimulus package — are ramping up wasteful spending and refusing to fix long-term structural budget deficits based on their belief that they will be showered with money by the stimulus package.

Of course they are. State-level political leaders don’t want to do the hard work associated with either A) going through their budgets and axing unnecessary spending or B) explaining to taxpayers how more tax revenue, and thus higher taxes, are needed. It’s oh-so-much-easier to get a federal bailout of state budgeting maladies.
Kind of like it’s easier to cure shortfalls in household or business budgets by using credit cards and loans. Of course, that’s only a short-term solution. If it can be called a solution at all. Eventually you’re going to have to do something different.
But all too often our political leaders today seem more than happy to mortgage our nation’s future with big spending now, expecting that our children and grand children will carry the burden of paying it back later.