Alice Rivlin: Vote once now on the real stimulus, vote again much later on all that other crap in the bill

Alice M. Rivlin, once President Clinton’s budget director, has noticed with alarm that the $820 billion “stimulus” bill has too little in the way of immediate stimulus, and too much in the way of mindless spending that is unlikely to help us out of the recession.

She diplomatically labels as “long-term investment” the bill’s mountain of spending measures that would not kick in for years, if ever. Rivlin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, speaks for me when she says:

“Such a long-term investment program should not be put together hastily and lumped in with the anti-recession package. The elements of the investment program must be carefully planned and will not create many jobs right away.”

“[The risk is that] money will be wasted because the investment elements were not carefully crafted.”

Sloppily unfocused. The Washington Post adds:

For some House Democrats, the problem is less a matter of balancing the short and long term than a shortage of focus and will on the part of the administration. Their disappointment centers on the relatively small amount devoted to long-lasting infrastructure investments in favor of spending on a long list of government programs. While each serves a purpose, the critics say, they add up to less than the sum of their parts, and fall far short of the transformative New Deal-like vision many of them had entertained.

The bill to be voted on today includes $30 billion for roads and bridges, $9 billion for public transit and $1 billion for inter-city rail -- less than 5 percent of the package’s total spending.

$500 billion waste. Again, 5 percent for quick-started projects and maybe 33 percent for dubiously designed tax cuts. That leaves $500 billion -- half a freakin’ trillion dollars -- wasted. That’s what Rivlin wants separated out.

I’d rather see a temporary tax credit giving consumers a break for buying a new car or a new refrigerator or home repairs this year. A tax credit like that would draw people out of their houses and stir economic activity.

But the $500 billion in proposed spending that Rivlin frowns on is more likely to become an unmanageable debt burden than a down payment on prosperity.

Frank Warner

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See also: Economists Cole and Ohanian on lessons of the New Deal: Today’s recovery has to include more competition, tax incentives, wiser bank regulation and better education for all.

See also: Economist Martin Feldstein: Wait a month or two to avoid ‘stimulus’ mistake.

See also: ‘Stimulus’ bill: Some economists ignore all data.

See also: The ‘stimulus’ bill looks like a bad last bet.

See also: Larry Summers rules: Stimulus must be ‘timely, targeted, temporary.’