The House passed an $819 billion tax-and-spending bill Wednesday, in a recession-fighting effort that would extend the reach of the federal government across the U.S. economy by reshaping policy on energy, education, health care and social programs.
The House bill is one of the largest single stimulus packages in history, almost equal to the entire cost of annual federal spending under Congress's discretion. A parallel Senate measure, which is expected to come to a vote next week, is now valued at nearly $900 billion.
The fact that the bill got no Republican support is the story. The bill had no chance of not passing the House -- this much has been clear for awhile. The only question was the support breakdown among moderates and Republicans, a fact made evident by the media attention given to conservative Congressmen over the past week. And no mention of the big goose egg comes on the front page of the WSJ today; it takes 8 full paragraphs for the reporters to make note of it.
But no fear. Murdoch quickly corrected this mistake by offering up a new stimulus plan. Well, he didn't, per se. He just published the much-sought-after thoughts of MIT macroeconomist Rush Limbaugh:
Keynesian economists believe government spending on "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects -- schools, roads, bridges -- is the best way to stimulate our staggering economy. Supply-side economists make an equally persuasive case that tax cuts are the surest and quickest way to create permanent jobs and cause an economy to rebound. That happened under JFK, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. We know that when tax rates are cut in a recession, it brings an economy back.
