The National Republican Congressional Committee has issued a statement on the two-year anniversary of the stimulus package passage, ripping … (pause for effect) ex-congressman Walt Minnick. Kevin Richert/Statesman points out the two reasons why the following statement is weird: “Today marks two years since the stimulus package was signed into law, riding on a wave of support from Walt Minnick and his former Democrat colleagues. Unfortunately, during the past two years, the $814 billion stimulus effort has failed to produce the jobs and economic recovery that had been promised. Today, as Minnick considers a run for his old seat, his former House Democrat allies are united under President Obama’s budget plan which proposes even more of the stimulus-style spending that will continue to add to our national debt and bring more uncertainty to small businesses trying to create jobs.” More here.

Question: Seriously?

Newly uncovered letters sent by Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick to try to bring money from the federal stimulus package are being called hypocritical by a national investigative journalism center. Minnick’s campaign says he was advocating for Idaho businesses and trying to clear up federal red tape. Minnick and the rest of Idaho’s delegation in Congress voted against the $787 billion stimulus package. In an investigative story called “Stimulating Hypocrisy,” the Center for the Public Interest (CPI) published several letters Minnick wrote to the Department of Commerce to get grants to expand high-speed Internet access in Idaho/Brad Iverson-Long, Idaho Reporter. More here.

Question: What do you make of Walt Minnick’s “letter-marking” in this instance?

• Thursday Poll: 79 of 135 respondents (58.5%) consider the 2009 federal stimulus package to be a failure. Only 20 of 135 respondents (14.8%) consider it to be a success. 36 of 136 respondents (26.7%) placed the impact “somewhere in the middle.”
• Today’s Poll: Do you support the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero?
  

President Barack Obama gets ready to board the Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, as he departed for Denver, Colo., where he will sign the economic stimulus bill. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Question: If the stimulus package is such a good thing, why is the market tanking?

Republican Senate President Pro Tem Bob Geddes, is like a lot of Idahoans today. His retirement plans were changed when his “401 K turned into a 201 K plan.” He thinks too much spending, not just by government but by many of us who overextended our credit, is what put us in this place. So he’s very skeptical that spending will get us out. But he resented the suggestions that these views meant he and other state leaders wouldn’t spend the money if it came or that they would be hypocrites to spend it/Rocky Barker, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Are Idaho political leaders being hypocritical by stating their opposition to the stimulus package while being willing to spend the money coming to the state?

Democratic and Republican senators have reached a tentative agreement for a $780 billion stimulus package, according to two Democratic sources and a GOP negotiator. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has taken the list of cuts to the nearly $900 billion Senate bill to fellow Democrats, the sources said. The Senate plans to reconvene at 6:30 p.m./CNN. More here.

Question: Are you holding your breath, hoping the $790M economic stimulus bill passes? Or are you holding your breath, hoping it doesn’t?

I don’t think Idaho political leaders want to think strategically about a bunch of money they really don’t want. They don’t like the idea of a federal deficit-busting stimulus bill. They don’t want a bunch of one-time federal dollars — with whatever strings that may come with them. They would just as soon set their own budgets, spartan as they may be, with money collected and paid at the state level. There was a thanks-but-no-thanks subtext to the message delivered Thursday, when House Speaker Lawerence Denney and Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes spoke at an Idaho Press Club luncheon. It’s a little bit of fiscal conservatism and independent-minded suspiciousness about the federal government, rolled into one. Fair enough. But let’s not let ideology get in the way of pragmatism/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Should Idaho political leaders jettison their ideology and grab their fair share of the bloated federal porkulus package?