Stimulus

From Ibdeditorials.com:

Washington's attempt to spend us out of our economic doldrums gets more ambitious by the day
and could total more than $1 trillion once interest is figured in. The long-range implications of this are alarming.

the Democrat-led Congress has larded up the 647-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with an assortment of spending items that have little or nothing to do with economic stimulus.

There's money to refurbish the National Mall, sponsor a carbon-capturing contest, buy alternative-energy vehicles for the Defense Department and a new computer system for the Social Security Administration, pay for testing for sexually transmitted diseases, fund the arts,

and endow child-care development programs.

You might like some or all of these things. But they're not stimulus. Ans such non-stimuli add up. The full package is going to cost, according to House Ways and Means Ranking Member Rep. Dave Camp, a Republican from Michigan, $1.1 trillion, including $347 billion in interests payments.

That will push the deficit to $1.5 trillion, a little more than 10% of the entire domestic economy. Deficits aren't usually a problem as long as they don't exceed roughly 4% of GDP. But when they go beyond that, trouble begins.

Senators need to keep that in mind as they take up the stimulus bill next week. A stimulus bill should stimulate, not grow government.