"It's like deja vu all over again"
...Yogi Berra New York Yankee
Baseball Hall of Fame

The Obama and House Democrat "economic stimulus" package is a train wreck looking for a place to happen. Should it be passed by the Senate and signed by the President, that "place" will be on the shoulders of future generations of Americans.

If past is prologue, our experiences tell us the package will do far more harm than good by growing government, raising taxes and wasting money. Once in place, a larger government will be difficult to trim.

The Pelosi-Obama package is primarily a huge expansion of government and Democrat control of that government. There is little immediate stimulus in the package. It is a payoff to many who supported Obama and the Democrats in last year’s election. Unions, special interest groups and existing government programs will benefit, not to mention a thinly veiled list of non-stimulus and wasteful earmarked appropriations for Democrat members of Congress. Didn’t Obama tell us that earmarks would be resisted in his new world of “hope and change”?

Hundreds of economists have attempted to remind the President that this kind of spending does not work. It did not work to pull the country (and the world) out of the Great Depression in the 1930s, nor did it work for Japan in the 1990s. The New Deal of President Franklin Roosevelt and The Great Society of President Johnson gave us much larger government, higher taxes and government controlling more and more of our lives.

In their well-propagandized pledge to listen, to welcome Republican ideas and work together, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the President have deceived the public. It sounded good; but apparently, they really did not want to hear nor did they want the input if it differed from theirs. As the President said recently, “I won.” So much for working together. The obscene House stimulus bill received no Republican votes for good reason.

As Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development for President Reagan in the late 1980s, I dealt with the aftermath of a dreadful “ economic stimulus” package by another Democrat Congress and President of the late 1970s. The Economic Development Administration, a creation of the Great Society programs of President Johnson, was expanded during the Carter Administration from a relatively small (hundreds of millions), highly questionable agency to one of over $6.5 billion under the “Local Public Works” economic stimulus program. It was a disaster, an enormous and shameful waste of millions of dollars.

That experience three decades ago ought to serve as a painful reminder of what government should and should not do. This kind of stimulus does not work. Overcoming the Carter Recession and ineffective economic policies required tax cuts, downsizing government and a strong leader and president wise enough to do it, and that was President Ronald Reagan.

Yogi Berra’s quip is so appropriate today. Have we learned nothing?

Each day the President speaks of dire consequences if Congress does not quickly approve the Democrat stimulus package (perhaps before we all figure it out.) The familiar Obama talent for appealing to emotions rather than reality is in full swing.

For certain, we have economic problems as credit tightens, consumers trim spending habits and hunker down in fear. Under the cover of addressing these serious problems, Obama and the Democrat congressional leadership seek to change the economic and social structure of our country, a structure that will be more socialistic with them in charge. They want to overpower wisdom and experience with the emotions of fear and their promised “hope and change”. Those who elected Obama are now being asked to pressure Senators for quick passage.

If Obama succeeds in this charade, be very concerned.

No Republican Senator should vote for this stimulus bill. You can help them to understand the lessons of yesterday’s experiences and be steadfast rather than give in to the emotional ploy of today. They need courage. America, speak on!

Submitted by ASO member: Orson Swindle

Orson Swindle served for eight years with the Reagan Administration, the last four as Assistant Secretary of Commerce, and recently, over seven years as a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. A career Marine Corps officer and fighter pilot, he was a prisoner of war in Hanoi, Vietnam for over six years.