Reign in the House Democrats

We all know that Republicans don't get the concept that you need to spend money on infrastructure and that spending facilitates economic growth.

What we have learned in the past two weeks is just how incompetent Democrats in the House are. I have always felt that Nancy Pelosi is the worst House speaker of my lifetime. Both in her failure to exercise the rights of Congress as an equal branch of government when she led the opposition party and now in her petty attempts to further liberal pet projects under the guise of a stimulus bill now that she is leading the majority party.

In the big picture, I think it's time for Democrats to kick her out of a leadership role. For today, however, it's time for the House Democrats to take their leadership from the Senate and pass the Senate bill as is. The objective right now is to kick into gear programs that will increase economic growth in the short term (now through 24 months), not to take care of all the problems we have in a single bill.

Let's look at the education component that has been removed from the Senate bill. House Democrats are all up in arms about this. If we were talking about an education bill, I would be upset. We're not. We're talking about a stimulus bill. Education is one of the most important things we can spend money on, and it's long-term ROI is unmatchable by any other spending or tax cut.

But it is very long-term. The only reason you try to force it into an economic stimulus plan is because the specific education spending you are proposing is questionable and cannot withstand scrutiny in an education bill. I fear that's what House Democrats are doing with many of these non-stimulus items.