This post is a few days late, but after watching Obama’s speech in Congress on Tuesday, I felt torn. One side of me says that something has to be done. The other side asks, “At what cost?” A trillion dollars is a whole hell of a lot of money to keep track of and trust me I will be checking Recovery.gov constantly to see where my money is being spent. So in this post I want to go into the pros and cons of the plan and then ask the question will it work?
Pros
- Spending on Infrastruture: As a younger American, I’m glad to see that my money won’t fade away in the short term and maybe when I’m crossing a bridge 30 years from now it won’t crumble because of the improvements that will be made in the next few years.
- Lower Health Care Costs: Luckily, I have insurance. I honestly don’t know how people make do without it. This should free up some money for people and help provide care for the people who cannot afford it right now.
- Tax Relief: The best part of this is the short-term impact. Watch your paychecks in April, they should look at a little bigger.
Cons
- Size of the Bill: Surely, we will be paying for this bill for a long time. At some point taxes are going to have to rise.
- Oversight: Maybe it’s the pessimist in me, but I have a hard time believing that with billions and billions floating around that someone won’t find a way to “misappropriate funds”.
- Will it be Enough?: Hard to tell; it seems like every reputable economist has a different opinion.
Will the plan work? Gosh, let’s hope so. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of all the doom & gloom that almost everyone seems to be a part of. There is hardly any precedent of stimulus package of this size. The real question should be, when do we know we are out of the recession? At this point, all theories are out the door; it’s about execution and correcting the course when necessary.
What is your outlook on the Stimulus Plan? What part of the plan will benefit you most?
4 Comments until now.
I’ve been torn as well, but I’m a bit more optimistic. A few interesting notes:
- on accountability: I’m sure that some will figure out ways to misappropriate the money. I’m also sure that it’s going to be a lot harder to do than it has ever been before.
- on health care costs: while the startup costs of getting all those medical facilities online is huge, I think the savings are going to be incredibly huge. The system proposed is similar to one being used by Mayo Clinic. According to a report from Dartmouth, if hospitals across the country used the standards of care adopted at Mayo Clinic – which are more efficient, cost less and deliver higher quality care and better outcomes than the national norms – Medicare would save $50 billion a year – at current usage rates.
Chameleon@CoffeeBreak’s last blog post..What difference does your coffee cup make?
I am impressed with the stimulus package. I believe it has been constructed better than I feared it would be.
My biggest concern is what sort of oversight we have. I think it is up to all of us to make sure the money is spent wisely. One site that I like is Stimulus Watch
http://www.stimuluswatch.org
You can comment about pros and cons of proposed projects.
Other comments: For cons, you list the size of the bill and will it be enough.
It sort of reminds me of an old joke. Two elderly people are at a resort in the Catskills. One comments about how bad the food is. The other agrees and complains about how small the portions are.
Final thought: How do we know when we are out of a recession? I would guess that it has to do with when our GDP starts growing again. However, that is a trailing indicator, and better indicators are probably consumer confidence and new factory orders.
Aldon @ Orient Lodge’s last blog post..Discovering Something Important About Government
As someone who’s husband is a Pharmacist (with a doctor of pharmacy degree) and I who have a medical billing business for over 12 years, I can clearly see why the health care business is a badly run BUSINESS!!
Just look at all the ads the drug companies have on TV. (Cialis and Viagra the worse!)
But even we were surprised to hear about a Practice Management company that is traded on the stock exchange, and is in the business of MAKING money for their shareholders.
They are so large that recently they bought out a doctor’s practice for MILLIONS.
The doctor is than their EMPLOYEE and has to practice medicine according to what they tell him to do! If THEY decide the patient needs tests the doctor has to comply, (imagine the unecessary costs) if the patient doesnt have ins the patient isnt released until they are covered by medicaid (regardless of the additional cost to medicaid for unecessary days in hospital)
Yes and there are many such type practice management companies imagine how they alone are driving up health care costs and how stupid a doctor is to become an employee of such unscrupulous companies.
As to the stimulous package, the earmarks aka pork aka waste of money will do nothing for the economy!
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Terri,
That’s a very interesting take on a corporation taking over a doctor’s office. That should be illegal or to me is at least morally wrong.
Yes, I’m sure the Acorns and ACLU’s of the world are going to be getting some government subsidized money after it’s all said and done.
Comment!