Rewriting the Social Contract
- The Great Society on Steroids: "[The stimulus bill] is
also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the
uninsured and the unemployed, in ways [liberals] have long yearned
to do." --The New York Times, Jan. 27, 2009
- The Great Society of Health Care: "We accomplished more
today than in the last eight years." --House Ways and Means
Sub-Committee Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA) commenting on the health
care portion of the bill on Jan. 29, 2009
Welfare
- President Clinton's Accomplishment: "Today, we are
taking an historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be,
a second chance, not a way of life." --President Bill Clinton, upon
signing welfare reform into law on Aug. 22, 1996
-
What This Did: The Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) funding structure encouraged states to decrease
caseloads and help dependents to self-sufficiency through
work.
- Not So Fast: The "stimulus" restores perverse incentives
of the pre-welfare reform AFDC-style funding, increasing funding
for increasing welfare caseloads.
- Welfare is Back: The total 10-year extra welfare cost is
likely to be $787 billion in new welfare
spending.
Health Care
- Government Controlled Health Care, Finally: The
"stimulus" bill contains profoundly controversial and far-reaching
health care provisions that would set the country on a path toward
more fiscal irresponsibility, unfunded entitlement liabilities and
less control by families over their personal health care
decisions.
- Dr. Congress: Combining the comparative effective
research with health IT provisions opens the door to direct
government interference in the doctor-patient relationship,
undermining personal control over health care decisions.
- Former CEOs on Medicaid? The bill creates new categories
of eligibility for Medicaid for persons who are unemployed. Since
there is no other income or asset test, former executives whose
companies the federal government is bailing out and even the former
governor of Illinois could qualify. Workers with lower income will
be taxed to pay for the cost of providing health insurance to
individuals who could have far more assets but who are temporarily
unemployed.
Big Government
- Departments of Energy and Education: The "stimulus" more
than doubles the size of both the Department of Energy and the
Department of Education. They will need to construct new buildings
just to house the taxpayers' money.
- Public Housing: The "stimulus" would revive the defunct
public housing programs abandoned in the 1970s by providing
billions of dollars for rehabilitation and possibly new
construction of public housing projects.
- Faith Based Exception: The "stimulus" deliberately
censors religious speech and worship on school campuses with
prohibitions on use of "stimulus" funds.
Twice the Jobs at Half the Price
Check out Heritage ideas for providing twice the jobs at half
the price at: http://www.heritage.org/news/economic-stimulus.cfm.