Let's Start Keeping Score

The Obama administration and its willing accomplices in the Democrat-controlled Congress have developed the technique of rushing through enormous legislation, because of the dire consequences they claim would happen if anyone carefully inspected, thoroughly contemplated, or even actually read the legislation. As a result, the trillion dollar stimulus bill and the trillion dollar climate bill both passed quickly, against Republican resistance.

Since hurried legislation was so necessary, let's look at the first results of the stimulus bill. Without the stimulus bill, the Obama administration said, unemployment could reach as high as 8.5 percent by April. With the Democrat bill, we were told, unemployment would only reach 7.8 percent.

As of today, less than a week after the end of the second quarter, unemployment is at 9.5 percent. This is what Vice President Joe Biden meant when he said everyone "guessed wrong" on unemployment. Biden said the White House is keenly aware of the gap between the rhetoric used to sell fast passage of the legislation and reality.

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I subscribe to Edmund Burke's idea of Conservatism, wherein change is introduced gradually, building on the wisdom of what has gone before. Change must be organic, rather than revolutionary. Rushing through radical change without due consideration, "may be a mask for the preferences of one man, and at best represents only the untested wisdom of one generation." I don't think our latest generation of Congressmen have shown themselves to be unusually wise. The stimulus legislation scorecard illustrates this.