As was expected, the Senate passed their revised version of Obama’s stimulus package. In true government fashion, the Senate and the House passed two different bills and will have to reconcile the differences. The likely outcome is a bill that will amount to a lot more than $838 billion.

It is obviously insanity to think that this stimulus bill is going to work better than the one passed last year under Bush. We already tried spending close to $1 trillion dollars to “fix” the economic crisis and it has just gotten worse. The Dow responded to today’s news by plunging over 300 points.

Treasury Secratary Geithner said, “The financial system is working against recovery and that’s the dangerous dynamic we need to change.” In reality, his stimulus bill is working against recovery. The economy needs to remove the bad investments so that we can build on a solid foundation once again. Trying to duct tape and glue this broken economy together is not going to work.

“Added to the congressional stimulus plan, which aims to create jobs and get Americans spending again, the total of these combined efforts could easily pass $2 trillion.” Not only is the bill likely to exceed $2 trillion dollars when all is said and done–why do we put a number on the bill anyway?–but, we are going to waste that money on “creating jobs”. The government cannot create jobs, it can only shuffle the jobs around.

What we need aren’t just “jobs” but, productive jobs. A job can entail digging a hole one day and then filling it back up the next day. What good is that going to bring? The government’s ability to create productive jobs is worse than hit or miss. How does the government know what is productive? It isn’t spending its own money. Only the market can know what is productive. Each action in the market is a person saying that they would rather spend money on this good or service instead of something else–like saving.

Jim Roger’s says the stimulus and bank rescue will only “make things worse”. Amen to that.

By Tommy Leung

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Tags: 838 billion, bank rescue, economic stimulus, geithner, jim rogers, obama

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