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UPDATE JANUARY 28! On final passage, all but one Republican (not voting), as well as 11 Democrats (including Maryland’s Frank Kratovil) voted here against H. R. 1  — a.k.a. “The European Social Welfare State Bill,” which passed the House this evening 244-188. Here is Andy Green’s comment in the Baltimore Sun on Kratovil’s position before the final vote this evening.

Tomorrow Wednesday most House Republicans will likely vote against H. R. 1, the so-called Stimulus Bill, better titled the “European Social Welfare State Bill” by National Review on Line’s Jim Manzi here.

Of course, the presidentially-supported measure is expected to gain the approval of the House with its 255 Democrat as opposed to 178 Republican members.

The House Republican Study Committee (RSC), a.k.a. the conservative conscience of that chamber, prepared an extensive analysis of H. R. 1 here.

Among the many regrettable aspects of this megaton budget bomb, here are some of those the RSC highlights –

“H.R. 1:  Key Conservative Concerns”

. . . . .

“–Won’t Work.  Many economists argue that there is no historical precedent for a stimulus spending-driven economic recovery.  CATO is running an ad signed more than 200 economists

which rejects the idea that more government spending will improve economic performance.  Even many liberal economists predict that if this legislation passes, the unemployment rate will remain around 8% over the next couple of years (near a 25-year high).

 

– NOT a Stimulus Bill.  60% of the discretionary spending occurs more than 19 months from now.  In addition, most of the spending in this legislation is of questionable benefit as ’stimulus.’

 

–Unprecedented Deficit Spending.  Even without this legislation, the FY 2009 federal deficit is projected to be the largest peacetime deficit in U.S. history as a percentage of GDP (8.3%). 

 

–Step Toward Washington-Run Health Care.   The legislation dramatically expands spending for government-provided healthcare while establishing a board that can serve as a placeholder for Tom Daschle’s goal of a Federal Health Board to regulate the U.S. health care system. 

 

–Phony “Tax Relief.”  Many of the so-called ‘tax relief’ provisions in the legislation expire after two years, are intended to benefit state and local governments, or are actually entitlement spending increases.    

 

–Massive Expansion of Davis-Bacon.  The legislation expands Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements to every project under the bill.  According to the Heritage Foundation, eliminating Davis-Bacon from the bill would save taxpayers $17 billion.

–Values Concerns.  The legislation prevents school choice in the $79 billion State Stabilization Fund (even in the case of IDEA funding where it is currently allowed).  Further, the bill allows family planning services which could be a funding source for organizations that support abortion, including Planned Parenthood.” 

 The RSC also points out that the measure “. . . includes spending for the following programs . . .” –

 ”$1 billion of CDBG [Community Development Block Grant] money and $750 million of Neighborhood Revitalization funding—ACORN would be eligible to receive funding under both . . .”

Readers are encouraged to review both the RSC’s analysis here and Jim Manzi’s here.

As Manzi explains –

“In other words, the net effect of this bill is to shift the distribution of U.S. government spending as a whole away from defense and public safety and toward social programs: for good or ill, to make the U.S. into more of a European-style social welfare state. Because the amount of spending is so huge, this will be a material, not notional, shift. Eventually, we will emerge from this recession/depression/whatever it’s going to be. When that happens, is this really the kind of government we’re going to want? And this change is unlikely to be temporary.” (Underscoring Forum’s.)
. . . . . . . . . .
“Nobody wants to repeat the mistakes of Herbert Hoover. This is a healthy concern. Hopefully we will be able to restrain ourselves from passing trade restrictions. Trying to balance the budget or restrict the money supply right now is almost certainly a fairly crazy experiment to run. We’re going to be running a big deficit. But this proposal is a disaster.“(Underscoring Forum’s.)

Is Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell up to the job of leading his other 40 Republicans to hold up the administration “stimulus” package, preventing cloture until they can get the package substantially retooled?  Nothing he has said to date leads us to believe so.

We would hope the members of the Republican National Committee would ask the candidates for chairman what each would propose be done about the administration’s “stimulus” package before the RNC members make their selection for chairman at the end of this week.  What action, for example, would each candidate take as RNC chairman to mobilize the grass roots against enactment of this likely national disaster?

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