Porkulus bill?

I remember when I read about the surge in Iraq a couple of years ago now, I believe, I thought it was a good idea. But the surge was proposed in December, authorized some time late January or early February and still nothing in Iraq had happened by May. Only in late June and Early July did things start happening. Democrats were saying in May that Iraq was lost, the surge had failed, and who could blames them? Well, Jack Kelly could. Actually I can’t remember what Kelly said at the time, but he has constantly repeated the statements of Democrats that the US had lost in Iraq, and used that to point out how Democrats get things wrong.

Today Kelly stated that the stimulus has failed. He also said he was glad, because it would make it difficult if not impossible for Democrats to get a cap and trade and health care reform bill through Congress. So let’s review. Kelly is glad that the stimulus bill has failed, even though that means millions more might lose their homes and jobs. But the important thing is the Republicans are better positioned to get seats in Congress in 2010, so they can help the Country like they did in the “jobless” recovery of 2003 … er … Also, Kelly doesn’t want healthcare reform or curbs on carbon emissions, although to be fair, he thinks Americans will be better off without healthcare reform, and global warming is a myth. Plus we have all the oil we need if the Democrats would get out of the way.

So Kelly will tell us while Democrats do act in a treasonous fashion, lying to the American public about the threat from terrorists who are sworn to kill us, Kelly is being a patriot in wishing the Democrats to fail. After all, it is the Democrats who put pork in Corgressional bills, not Republicans. Why, that famous “bridge to nowhere” was essential for growth in Alaska. And any state with a Republican Governor like Sarah Palin deserves whatever she wants.

I’m not going to make a logical argument against Kelly’s arguments. He has his viewpoints, and will defend them (cognitively dissonantly) no matter what is said to him. To some extent, he is right that the stimulus might have been too small, and that it might have had too much pork in it. The discussion of that is actually subtle, about how Obama is letting Congress do a lot, which means the bills reflect how the Senate only just recently reached a theoretical 60 democrats (well after the stimulus passed), how Obama is trying somewhat to reach out to Republican/conservatives to include them in the decision making process and the Republican/conservatives are instead putting their fingers in their ears and simply screaming “no” over and over again. This is being patriotic.