Stimulus Plan Is Going Nowhere Fast

I have been highly critical of the proposed economic stimulus plan and the crazed rush to pass any bill just to have something in place. It’s bad tax policy, it’s bad economic policy and it’s just plain terrible politics.

Thank goodness that the Republicans put the kibosh on a mad rush to pass a half-baked plan (that’s right, Dad, you can read it again: I thanked the Republicans).

The final tally in the Senate to end debate on the measure was 58-41. With that, the Democrats could move push the measure to a vote.

And now the mudslinging begins in earnest.

The Democrats managed to tack more onto an already bloated bill. They were banking on the fact that the GOP will take some political heat for not including senior citizens in the rebate. The House version of the bill which the White House supports does not include seniors and disabled vets in the rebate plan.

The Democrats played a game of roulette at taxpayers’ expense, figuring that the Republicans would bow to pressure to include seniors as part of a larger bill, including among other things, extending unemployment benefits (also left out of the House version of the bill) and help for homeowners involved in the subprime mortgage fiasco.

The Republicans, however, wouldn’t bite. They wanted to add their own special interest measures - including language by McConnell to specifically bar illegal immigrants from getting rebate checks. The latter is particularly interesting from a tax policy argument - generally, those opposed to providing funding for illegal immigrants argue that the immigrants are “getting something for nothing” and that illegal immigrants don’t file or pay taxes. However, to be included in the rebate, you’d have to file or pay taxes for 2007 - so that argument is mostly moot and is just loud for the benefit of conservative voters.

The White House response to this? They’re still in their “just pass anything so long as you do it quickly” mode.