"Stimulus" is politically crafted, but it's perfect

Having fooled millions of voters into believing that his accomplishment-free resume would soon record a transformational presidency, Barack Obama is now presenting his politically crafted trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill as a finely tailored remedy for America's economic ills.

In his weekly address, Obama praised the bill, which will be debated by the U.S. Senate this week, as just right. A short time earlier, Senate negotiators had chopped $100 billion of spending, presumably because the previous figure had been exactly $100 billion too high.

On Monday he will take his campaign for the bill to Elkton, IN, and on Tuesday he will travel to Fort Myers, FL.

As is his habit, Obama is playing loosely with the facts.

"We can't rely on a losing formula that offers only tax cuts as the answer to all our problems while ignoring our fundamental challenges - the crushing cost of health care or the inadequate state of so many schools, our addiction to foreign oil, or our crumbling roads, bridges and levees," Obama told his radio audience.

Trouble is, no one ever suggested that tax cuts were "the answer to all our problems," only that they should be a significant part of the mix, as they were not in the initial bill drafted by House leaders.

As things stand, tax cuts account for only one-third of the proposed spending. Rasmussen Reports has found that 62% of its survey sample prefer more tax cuts and less government spending, while 14% would like more government spending and lower tax cuts. Only 20% want the stimululs package to remain as it is today.

One more thing: Is Obama suggesting that the stimulus bill must be a universal fix for the nation's ills?

There already is a remedy at hand for failed schools. Break the domination of the public school system by unions that represent the interests of teachers and administrators, rather than pupils and their parents. Open up the sytem to competition by providing for charter schools and school vouchers. If forced to compete to stay in business, failing schools would improve quickly or go out of business.

One thing is certain. More money will not make failing schools better.

As for our addiction to foreign oil, a remedy is also at hand. Permit more drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the addiction to foreign oil would be reduced if not cured.

These remedies are, of course, anathema to Democrats, who hope to use bogus issues such as global warming and real issues such as oil imports to extend the heavy hand of government into every nook and cranny of American life.

As Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, famously said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."