Morning Must Reads

This afternoon the House is expected to vote on the conference report to the Democrats' "stimulus" bill.  The vote will come less than 12 hours after 1,000 plus page report was made public to lawmakers and the public online despite the Democrats' agreement to wait at least 48 hours for public disclosure before a final vote would be taken.  Broken down, the cost of the $789 billion dollar bill equals over $500 million a page and lawmakers have had less than a day to look at it before they are expected to vote.  

Bill's Blog will be updated throughout the day with more facts and figures on the "stimulus" throughout the day.

Now for the morning reads...

McClatchy Newspapers: "Will the Stimulus Actually Stimulate?  Economists Say No"

excerpt:

"I think (doing) nothing would have been better," said Ed Yardeni, an investment analyst who's usually an optimist, in an interview with McClatchy. He argued that the plan fails to provide the right incentives to spur spending.

"It's unfocused. That is my problem. It is a lot of money for a lot of nickel-and- dime programs. I would have rather had a lot of money for (promoting purchase of) housing and autos . . . . Most of this plan is really, I think, aimed at stabilizing the situation and helping people get through the recession, rather than getting us out of the recession. They are actually providing less short-term stimulus by cutting back, from what I understand, some of the tax credits."

The Washington Times: CBO predicts lower GDP in a decade

AP: Analysis: Stimulus won't jump-start the economy

Posted by: Press Secretary