Specter speaks

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) explains in today's Washington Post why he supports the stimulus package. First sentence:

I am supporting the economic stimulus package for one simple reason: The country cannot afford not to take action.

Senator, you can't really be this dumb. If you went to the doctor complaining of a fever and he recommended that you attach leaches to yourself that would certainly be an example of him taking action, but would it be helpful? Of course not. Likewise, doing nothing would be better than passing this horrendous piece of legislation.

Specter then engages in some self-congratulation:

The legislation known as the "moderates" bill, hammered out over two days by Sens. Susan Collins, Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and myself, preserves the job-creating and tax relief goals of President Obama's stimulus plan while cutting less-essential provisions -- many of them worthy in themselves -- that are better left to the regular appropriations process.

Our $780 billion bill would save or create up to 4 million jobs, helping to offset the loss of 3.6 million jobs since December 2007. The bill cuts some $110 billion from the $890 billion Senate version, which would actually be $940 billion if floor amendments for tax credits on home and car purchases and money for the National Institutes of Health are retained.

A few questions:

• How do you know that 4 million jobs would be created? Where did it come from? Would you be willing to place a wager on the accuracy of that figure?

• What do you make of the assessment by the Congressional Budget Office that the stimulus bill would actually make the economy worse off in the long run?

• Why is borrowing and spending is a good response to a crisis that many economists believe was caused by...borrowing and spending?

• The money to pay for this stimulus bill will have to be borrowed from the private sector. If let in the private sector, what other uses do you think that money would have gone towards? Are you confident that the government knows better how to spend that money more productively than the private sector? If so, why?

Update: Ross Douthat makes the following observation:

To read this Arlen Specter op-ed, justifying both the stimulus package and the cuts the "gang of moderates" have attempted to impose, is to encounter a mind incapable of thinking about policy in any terms save these: Take what the party in power wants, subtract as much money as you can without infuriating them, vote yes, and declare victory.

Yes, it is certainly formulaic and lacks imagination.