And it won't even work!

My opposition to the so-called stimulus package stems largely from a philosophical bend away from massive government intrusion in the economy. In a crisis, there is certainly a role for government - I'm not so libertarian as to deny that. But to throw ridiculous amounts of taxpayer dollars at a problem, funding a little of everything in the hopes that something works, is beyond reasonable to me. We've tried this kind of government intrusion before and it didn't work: contrary to the President's scathing words last night, it was government meddling - not the lack of it - that extended both the Great Depression and Japan's "lost decade".

But let's setting aside principles for a moment, let's say I was all for throwing lots of money at the problem to fix it, with the one caveat that I would like the money to be spent effectively. A post on Econbrowser suggests the new "compromise" package from the Senate doesn't even meet that test. In comparing the House and Senate versions, it notes that the Senate managed to pluck out all the provisions that may have led to some actual, immediate stimulus.

Indeed, in so many of the cuts to the original Senate bill, the wrong things were cut. And the wrong things were expanded, including most importantly tax provisions. The tragedy is that so many of these tax provisions are clearly going to have little "stimulus" effect.

All the more reason to vote this thing down and start over.