Stimulus Two... The Jobs Bill

Words matter, as President Obama might say. So, instead of calling his latest round of spending a stimulus, he'll call it a jobs bill.

After talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other administration officials, congressional Democrats are eying up to $70 billion in unused borrowing authority from last year's $700 billion Wall Street bailout for jobs-related legislation, two House Democratic aides said. The aides required anonymity to describe the private talks.

Democrats say the Troubled Assets Relief Program money would "pay for" any jobs bill. But the move is largely cosmetic since tapping the bailout money would require issuing billions of dollars in new federal debt. The White House had hoped to lower deficit projections by not using the full $700 billion in TARP authority approved during last year's economic meltdown.

I, and many like me, will ask what exactly we spent $787 billion on if not JOBS. Sometimes pols get so caught up in their own ideology that they're simply blind as to how it all looks.

First, if we spent $787 billion and that didn't create jobs, what in the world will another $70 billion do? Second, if this $70 billion will be the force to create jobs, why did we spend $787 billion in the first place? Let's face it. The current crop of Democrats are more in love with tax, borrow and spend than any political dynamic in history. There's almost nothing, short of defense, they aren't willing to throw money at: newspapers, struggling home owners, banks, highways, schools, pet projects, studies, you get the idea. They've suggested a tax on just about everyone and everything.

The Treasury borrowed to pay for TARP and our deficit is stunning. The folks are growing more and more concerned with the deficit daily. Yet, the Democrats have created another spending program. Of course, there's a reason why tax and spend has such a negative connotation. It doesn't work. It's counter productive. It's even worse than that. it stunts the growth of the economy. It burdens the private sector. It leads to higher interest rates and a weaker currency. Here we have the latest in a series of tax and spend policies.