(video link here)
I've seen a whole lot of hand-wringing and pre-emptive heading for the hills on this website lately, and it had begun to get a little discouraging. Claims that the Republicans were marching on to glorious victory in the spin wars (from Nate Silver to this diary that sat atop the rec list blasting the failure of the democrats.
Now, the fact that Republicans are effective at being obstructionist and whiny shouldn't come as any great surprise, but I still think this stimulus is often not getting its fair share of support. This 'just a spending bill' came to the senate at around $900 billion dollars - which would represent 32.9% of the FY 2007 federal budget. And this guy on CNN (who's video is happily on the front page) breaks it down in the simplest possible terms: Every time the government spends money on a project, it creates jobs.
http://www.ireport.com/...
The itemization in that video strikes me as extremely authentic. If you accept, as the American people seem to have done in November, that it's time to spend some money and to make the federal government operate smarter if not necessarily bigger, then this bill looks to be exactly what we need. This isn't money going into a blackhole somewhere in Bank of America's vaults - it is designed (though certainly not without flaws) to stimulate the economy and get people spending money. Sounds to me exactly what the federal government SHOULD be doing in this kind of situation. Incentivizing purchases of cars, houses. Funding development and infrastructure and environmental and energy projects that otherwise would not get off the ground.
Now, we'll ignore for a second that it's a little embarrassing that the most rational and compelling defense of the stimulus came from Random Guy on CNN and not the Dkos rec list, but I think it's a good start. Take a look at the video, call a congressman or two, and relax. The bill isn't perfect, but it's a fantastic start - it's got good chances of being passed within a few weeks, Obama is bringing out the big guns, and there are people out there who 'get' it.