I’m imagining Senators Collins, Snowe, Nelson, and Specter meeting for Sunday brunch this morning, toasting each other with mimosas and basking in the glow of newly realized power. The cuts made to the Senate version of the stimulus bill don’t have any clearly articulated rationale behind them other than some tired nonsense about “trimming the pork”. Explain to me how $40 billion in aid to bankrupt states is pork. Explain to me how $20 billion in school construction won’t create jobs.
When the total dollar amount of the bill is still close to a trillion dollars, I have a hard time buying the argument that this centrist-brokered deal is really about fiscal responsibility. It’s about politicians choosing self-promotion over a stimulus bill that might actually pull the economy out of this death spiral.
And it is a death spiral. Take a look at this chart, which compares the current wave of job losses to job losses in recent recessions:
Gulp.
