So as soon as I posted yesterday's entry, I saw that it looks like the House has agreed on a stimulus package and we can look forward to a vote sometime today. I can't actually get the text of the bill, but I'm guessing it's House Resolution 168 since that's what they were working on at midnight. (UPDATE: Looks like the text of the bill is available now, though I was mistaken. The stimulus package is actually H.R. 1: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.)
This article offers some details on the negotiations that made it into the stimulus package. It looks like some pork found a home in the bill, but aside from a bit that enables some businesses receiving government bailout funds (along with many other businesses) "to use current losses to claim refunds for taxes paid when times were good," the pork seems appropriate to the goals of the bill.
Well, that other bit about quadrupling the amount of money for constructing high-speed rail lines to $8billion seems questionable. Yes, it will create jobs, but the government is already subsidizing Amtrak. Long term, does it really make since to lay new passenger rail track?
We might be better off to set some of that $8billion aside for the assistance claims we all know are coming from Nadya Suleman, the now infamous octuplet mother. I've been completely fascinated and outraged by this story. Did you know she's already got her tin cup out? I totally understand wanting to help when high-number multiple births happen unexpectedly, but she planned this.
IMHO, I actually think the doctor and clinic that performed her in vitro should have to support these 8 children, and the 6 children she already had because the arrival of the new brothers and sisters will definitely place a burden on resources for them as well. Though with all the book and television offers she's been receiving, who knows, she may not need as much help after all.
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