The Economic Stimulus Bill of 2009 is a rough and tumble start for President Obama. He should be congratulated for his obvious skills in “herding cats” in Congress. It’s nice to see someone sit down with the other party and demonstrate a real willingness to be bipartisan.

I was opposed to the ”shove it down our throats” tactics that that Congress used to pass the TARP bill. And I was pleased when Tim Walz, our Congressman, stood against it.

This time however, in spite of the fact that it violates my belief that “less government is better” I am reluctantly going on the record that Congress should not be criticized if they vote to pass this. I am not an economist, nor the son of an economist, but I give three reasons for my view:

  1. The American people seem to be overwhelmingly in support of government spending a lot of money to attempt a rescue of our economy.
  2. Sometimes just the act of “doing something” can have a positive emotional impact on many folks who do not otherwise believe that they can rescue themselves. Government “creating belief” is not always bad; and it has worked in the past.
  3. The deliberation of this bill has been much better than the TARP fiasco, and more importantly, the money spent will be directed at “the folks” and not companies that caused the crisis.

Tim Walz should vote his conscience on this bill. I have emailed him my support for whatever his vote is. This is not a fun time to be a legislator.

What is sad is that there is obvious pork in this bill, the impact will most likely be less than expected, and folks will be disappointed. And to top it off… we will have to (again) borrow this money from foreign banks. Fun.

I believe that the economy will bounce back in spite of government help, not because of it. Americans are resilient, and we are motivated to succeed in spite of all obstacles. So if it helps folks feel better that the government will “help” them, then that’s fine by me. But at the end of the day, we will fix this ourselves.

Read the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Legislative Summary sent to me by Tim Walz.