President Barack Obama returns to our fair city today to sign into law a historically massive bill meant to stimulate the nation’s sagging economy.
Welcome back, Mr. President. For the sake of the country, we hope our concerns over the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” are misplaced.
The $787 billion measure passed through Congress with dizzying speed and scant bipartisan support. Despite a promise to allow the public 48 hours to review it before a vote, Democratic lawmakers quickly approved it — before they could even pretend to read the massive bill.
The country needs some type of stimulus, though, and we’re encouraged by what we see in the Colorado segment of the bill.
It promises nearly $2 billion in government spending and tax breaks in Colorado at a time when the state’s budget faces a $600 million deficit, scores of neighborhoods have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis and unemployment levels, though not as high as in some states, are on the rise. The measure sets aside more than $400 million for highways and more than $100 million for mass transit. Colorado has been hamstrung by the decline of the gasoline tax, and the state’s largest mass-transit project, FasTracks, has been threatened by ballooning costs.
We’ve long worried that education has been under-funded in Colorado, and Obama’s plan calls for about $612 million to fund local schools and public colleges and universities in a manner that retains teachers and helps repair school buildings. There is also nearly $150 million for special education, about $127 million for programs to help disadvantaged students bridge performance goals, and some money for Head Start and upgraded computer, software and training.
The measure promises nearly $180 million for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (or food stamps) and millions more for other welfare programs meant to help struggling and out-of-work Coloradans make do as they try to find their way back into solid employment.
There also is nearly $50 million in grants for research and development of renewable energy and updated transmission lines, and $81 million to help low-income families weatherize their homes. The green energy piece seems to dovetail nicely with Gov. Bill Ritter’s signature efforts to promote and attract green- energy jobs.
Still, we were dismayed and disappointed by Obama’s handling of his stimulus plan. By constantly and aggressively hitting the notes of alarm and warning about “catastrophe” if Congress failed to act immediately, the new president seemed to be offering little change from the previous administration’s use of fear to push through laws the public regretted.
This new law received very little actual debate, given its scope. It will swell deficits that might take a generation or two to repay — and it might not even work. We deserved a rigorous intellectual review of this plan, but got a newly powerful Democratic Party flexing its muscle.
We wish the new president and his new plan the very best of luck. We don’t really have a choice.
