Admittedly I'm neither a doctor nor an economist but I'm going to pretend for a moment. When a runner collapses from exhaustion the prescribed treatment is not generally a shot of electrolytes, vitamins, adrenaline, insulin, selenium, and Lipitor all at the same time hoping that one will get them up and running immediately. You'd probably kill him instead of fixing him. When our economy has collapsed from exhaustion (as well as stupid, greedy executives and politicians) a shotgun approach of spending newly printed money on any and every underfunded cause. We need a surgical approach. Any spending excess at this point will likely do more harm than good. Why can't we do a focused stimulus package? For that same reason we can't have a focused national energy policy? We're relying on politicians to figure this out. I'm not holding my breath.

 

In case you are interested here are some items in the current stimulus package. Job generation?  - you decide!

• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts to shore up flagging cultural institutions
• a quarter billion dollars to fix State Department computers
• $200 million to spruce up the National Mall
• $670 million to rebuild restrooms and other buildings in national parks
• $87 million from the stimulus package to pay for expanded family planning services for Medicaid recipients, arguing that it could ultimately be a cost-reducing measure.
• $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years
• $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts
• $400 million for global-warming research
• $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
• There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons
• $1 billion for Amtrak, which hasn’t earned a profit in four decades
• $2 billion to help subsidize child care
• $2.4 billion for projects to demonstrate how carbon greenhouse gas can be safely removed from the atmosphere.
• $650 million for coupons to help consumers convert their TV sets from analog to digital, part of the digital TV conversion.
• $600 million to buy a new fleet of cars for federal employees and government departments.
• $75 million to fund programs to help people quit smoking
• $21 million to re-sod the National Mall, which suffered heavy use during the Inauguration
• $2.25 billion for national parks. This item has sparked calls for an investigation, because the chief lobbyist of the National Parks Association is the son of Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wisc. The $2,25 billion is about equal to the National Park Service’s entire annual budget. The Washington Times reports it is a threefold increase over what was originally proposed for parks in the stimulus bill. Obey is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.