Political News 1.29.09

News:

WSJ: "House Passes Stimulus Package: $819 Billion Jolt to Economay Aims to Reshape Education, Healthcare; Defecit to Soar" ... The House bill is one of the largest single stimulus packages in history, almost equal to the entire cost of annual federal spending under Congress's discretion. A parallel Senate measure, which is expected to come to a vote next week, is now valued at nearly $900 billion.

WSJ: "Missing in Package: Bipartisan Support" President Barack Obama has talked often about working toward a new bipartisanship .... The net result of all that outreach? Not a single Republican supported Mr. Obama's economic recovery package on the House floor Wednesday night. It passed 244-188, with 11 Democrats joining the Republicans.

Op-Ed:

Rush Limbaugh via WSJ: "My Bipartisan Stimulus: Let's cut taxes, as I want, and spend more, as Obama would like"....  Let's say the vote was 54% to 46%. ... under the Obama-Limbaugh Stimulus Plan of 2009: 54% of the $900 billion -- $486 billion -- will be spent on infrastructure and pork as defined by Mr. Obama and the Democrats; 46% -- $414 billion -- will be directed toward tax cuts, as determined by me.

Thomas Sowell via Townhall: "What Are They Buying?" Everyone is talking about how much money the government is spending, but very little attention is being paid to where they are spending it or what they are buying with it.  The government is putting money into banks, even when the banks don't want it ....

Thomas Sowell via Townhall: "Lured to Disaster" Behind the housing boom and bust was one of those alluring but undefined phrases that are so popular in politics-- "affordable housing."  It is hard for me to know specifically what politicians are talking about when they use this phrase. But then politics is about evoking emotions, not examining specifics.  ....