February 2009

 

What Can You Believe About the Economic Stimulus?

 

George Bernard Shaw said, “If all the economists were laid end to end, they still would not reach a conclusion.” Yet on the subject of what to do about the meltdown of the U.S. economy, there seems to be a very strong consensus from economists and financial experts across the spectrum: if money is not infused into the U.S. economy very quickly, the economy will collapse completely. If the money is not coming from the private sector — and it’s not — it must come from government. That’s what the economic stimulus bill being debated in Congress is all about.

I believe the economists when they tell us that spending a lot of money on public works construction accomplishes two things. 1.) All the people hired to build these projects will spend their salaries, and put money into the economy. 2.) Building these projects makes sense because they are badly needed anyway.

Some critics in Congress and in the media call these public works projects pork barrel spending. I disagree. I don’t consider $129 million for Hawaii roads, highways, bridges, transit, flood control and clean water to be pork barrel spending. I don’t consider $66 million to repair and modernize Hawaii schools pork barrel spending. I don’t consider $7 million to retrain workers in Hawaii who’ve lost their jobs pork barrel. I don’t consider increasing Pell grants so 14,000 more Hawaii students more can afford to go to college to be pork barrel. And I certainly don’t consider a $500 tax rebate for 476,000 middle class taxpayers in Hawaii pork barrel spending.

It looks like the Senate’s version of an Economic Stimulus measure will cut back on the public works projects in the House Bill. Most of those who consider public works to be pork barrel spending argue that all we really need to do is cut taxes for big businesses and corporations and make the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent.

But, those people pretty much had their way for the last eight years, and, clearly, Americans are ready for a new approach.

That’s why President Obama recently traveled to Elkhart, Indiana—to show and to remind Washington what’s really happening to people there, in Hawaii, and across the nation, beyond the confines of the U.S. Capitol and outside the Beltway. As the President put it, "Folks here in Elkhart and across America need help right now, and they can't afford to keep on waiting for folks in Washington to get this done. [W]e can't afford to wait. We can't wait and see and hope for the best. We can't posture and bicker and resort to the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place."

Yes, it’s time we reach agreement and get the bill to the President as soon as possible, before more businesses in Hawaii and the Mainland close and more of our friends, family and neighbors lose their jobs.

                                                                                   

Aloha,

Neil Abercrombie

Member of Congress

 

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