Stimulated yet?

A lot of pundits are framing it this way: The Republicans’ decision to oppose the stimulus bill supported by President Obama and Democratic lawmakers is a cynical gamble. In order for it to pay off, the stimulus has to fail. They are rooting for a bad economy for crass political purposes.

Baloney.

First, it’s true that Republicans would have more credibility if they hadn’t been so willing to act as passive lap-dogs on the Bush stimulus, which

was loaded with billions of dollars of useless pork. But Americans would have to make a conscious choice to be stupid if they think the current $850 billion bill is jammed tight with nothing but economy enhancing, job-creating expenditures.

Let’s see, $420 million to fight avian flu, $850 million to prevent forest fires, $20 billion to modernize health-information technology, $6 billion to weatherize houses. Maybe these are worthy projects, but what do they have to do with job creation or economic stimulus?

I’m not opposed to government spending in order to help the economy. But do it right, for heaven’s sake. And what happened to Obama’s promise there would be no pork?

Here’s an op-ed by Martin Feldstein, former Reagan administration economist, that says it well.