Regular readers of this column (and I assume that there must be some of you out there) will recall the beginning of the academic year, when in the run-up to the election my column consisted, in its simplest form, of political messages designed to convince the reader to vote for the Republican nominee for president, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). As you may be aware, my single-handed plan to win the election for McCain through the editorial page of The Miami Student came up just short. Since then, I have eschewed nearly all contact with current events, ignoring even Vice President Joe Biden's gaffes-of-the-week.
I decided during the run-up to President Barack Obama's inauguration that I would again try to be an informed member of society and return to reading newspapers and watching the news. This was undoubtedly one of the worst mistakes of my life. It did not take long for me to see enough coverage of the desperate/perilous/catastrophic/collapsing/Depression-imminent economy to begin wondering how pedestrians on the sidewalks surrounding Lower Manhattan's high-rises avoid being squashed by bankers plummeting from their boardroom windows. Nearly as bad was the political coverage, heavy on the arguments over how bipartisan (or not) all of Washington's players are behaving light of questions such as, "What is actually in this trillion dollar bill?"
My inquisitive mind leapt to work, deciding that perusing a long piece of legislation would certainly be preferable to listening to a humanoid such as the irredeemable Keith Olbermann squawk about how evil all people to the political right of Mao Zedong are. I went to THOMAS, the Library of Congress' Internet database for legislation, and found HR 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (as received in the Senate after passage by the House). It is an appropriations bill, and every line item is loaded with enough money to make most of us rich beyond our wildest dreams. Of course, all of this money is borrowed money, but nevertheless it amuses me to note how congressional appropriators toss around nine-digit numbers with an ease reminiscent of the hormonally manipulated East German "female" shot-putters of the bygone Cold War era.
It did not take much reading for me to find HR 1's first titillating thrill: Section 1110, Use of American Iron and Steel. This section prohibits the use of HR 1's appropriated funds for public construction or repair projects unless all of the iron and steel used in the project is domestically produced. I cannot be too critical, because former President George W. Bush presided over an increase in the steel tariff. Still, every time a protectionist measure is passed, it begs the question of how will our trading partners react to this? I am sure that the United States does not have the only government susceptible to pressure from populist, protectionist special interests. On the other hand, Section 1109 prohibited use of HR 1 appropriations to establish aquariums, zoos, golf courses and swimming pools-prudence which should attenuate the effects of any trade retaliation related to the iron and steel provision.
Under Title III, devoted to Commerce, Justice and Science, the Census Bureau receives an extra $1 billion. An additional $650 million is doled out for costs associated with the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Program (that's right, fellow RedHawks! Subtitle B of Title IX, dealing with Health and Human Services, gives an additional $2.2 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Section 9303 of the bill increases the amount authorized and appropriated for Pell Grants by over $1 billion.
Each of the items listed above may have their merits, but one wonders whether they should all be included in this stimulus bill, which presumably is supposed to be reserved for targeted, temporary measures to spur the economy. The $30 billion earmarked under the heading of "Highway Infrastructure Investment" may play that role, but I doubt if the money for the aforementioned TV converter boxes will. In sum, the HR 1 is like a fishing vessel, the hull festooned with the barnacles of some not-so-urgent spending priorities. It is almost certain that a House-Senate conference committee, incubator of deal-making pork barrel spending, will be the last chance to put some shackles on the unnecessary spending in the bill. I think I'm going to go back to watching Olbermann.
