House Passes the Porkulus Bill

This week the House of Representative passed the largest piece of spending legislation in the history of mankind, and did so without any committee hearings and with about an hour of floor debate. There is something fundamentally wrong here.

First of all, I’m not a Keynesian. I don’t believe that government spending spurs economic growth. But even if I did believe that, you have to look at what kind of spending is in the bill. Building a bridge or other true infrastructure might create some temporary jobs in the short term. But money for contraception and preventing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases? Who could argue, with a straight face, that such spending will stimulate the economy? Oh, wait, our Speaker of the House can:

Then again, is she really making that argument with a straight face? Between all the Botox and plastic surgeries, she might be trying to laugh, but we’ll never know.

Simply put, it’s not a “stimulus” bill, it’s a “porkulus” bill. As Charles Kraithammer put it here, it is “40-year wish list” of spending for liberal democrats. Or, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out here, only about 12% of the bill can really be called “stimulus.”

Fortunately, every House Republican, joined by 11 Democrats, voted against it. This will give President Obama a chance to reconsider the approach he is taking before the Senate moves on it. He could greatly, greatly improve on the bill before it reaches his desk.

I honestly believe that this is the worst piece of legislation in my lifetime.