Spend It Or Give It Back And I'll Spend It.

Reading Alan Abelson‘s column in this morning’s Barron’s, I was struck by a statistic that represents a remarkable example of the inertia of government.

Abelson is relaying the assertion by Paul Kasriel that we should give the 2009 stimulus plan enough time to trickle through before enacting another costly program.  Fine, we agree.  But here’s the amazing part, he says it’s tough to tell whether or not the stimulus package was an abject failure or not because:

…only some 30% of the $580 billion allocated in that program has actually been spent.  All told, he reckons, 70% of the spending fiscal stimulus roughly 56% of tax-cut fiscal stimulus are still in the pipeline.

If that percentage is accurate, then someone needs to be clubbed like a seal and stripped of their rubber stamping authority.

Does anyone else feel like we’re 11 years into this recession already?  70% of last year’s stimulus funds sit in a pipeline while small businesses don’t know whether to make payroll or utility costs next month.

You need shovel-ready to get that cash out the door and into the economy?  Here’s a no-brainer for those in charge who are proving without a shadow of a doubt that they, in fact, have no brains…

SPEND IT.

Or give me back my portion and I’ll spend it.  And I spend money in local stores owned by my neighbors, avoiding chains selling Asian-made garbage whenever possible.  So get that money allocated and spent or shoot it back to the taxpayer who would be better at spending it anyway.

You guys are disconnected.

Source:

Jury’s Still Out (Barron’s)