$1 trillion 'stimulus' package picking up steam on the Hill

The House Progressive Caucus is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to back a $1 trillion, two-year stimulus package aimed at low- and middle-income Americans — about double the amount Pelosi has publicly contemplated.

The liberal-leaning bloc of House Democrats sent a letter to Pelosi Monday with their $1 trillion request, and plan to follow up with specific policy proposals next week, according to a copy obtained by Roll Call.

“If many of the titans of America’s financial, insurance and auto industries are to be bailed out by American taxpayers to the tune of $800 billion or more, it is imperative that hard-working and impoverished Americans also receive federal help,” the Progressive Caucus wrote.

“This may be our only bite at the apple.”

Pelosi already is being pulled in different directions on the stimulus proposal. Blue Dog fiscal conservative Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and New Democrat Ron Kind (Wis.) on Monday asked that a fiscal commission be part of the stimulus package, citing the exploding long-term national debt and the need to slow the growth of entitlement programs.

Pelosi herself has spoken about balancing the needs of the economy against the buildup of the nation’s long-term debt.

Which side do you think is going to win out in that argument?

Let's see how many schools of politics we can identify here. There's the "politics of envy," class warfare politics, and the usual liberal desire to simply buy people's vote outright.

Now some of us might think that $1 trillion is a lot of money. Not so. It is only 1/8 the amount that we've already spent bailing out evil corporations. And since all of this bailout fever is going to break the US government, when the Progressive Caucus says "This may be our only bite at the apple.” what they are really saying is "this is the last chance to buy our re-election before everything goes to hell."

I don't know what's worse; the liberal economists who are pushing this insanity or Congressional Democrats who seek to profit politically by it.