The Conservative Bulwark

There's been a awful lot of bantering, squabbling, debating, crying, yelling, cheering, and even more crying over the massive "stimulus" bill (now law). With nearly a trillion dollars of money that we don't have about to be dumped into crevices that we'll never see, I guess it's only fitting that we've saddled our children and our children's children with enough debt to choke Rosie O'Donnell.

So if the idea of pumping billions of dollars into "Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects; and $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons" (this is from the Wall Street Journal - Jan. 29, 2009) doesn't exactly make you jump for joy...and if this whole thing just makes you want to melt your brain...then perhaps the following simple explanation will put this whole "stimulus" plan into perspective:

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from Minnesota .

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The
Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700."

The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the
other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

The Chicago contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."

"Done!" replies the government official.

And that, my friends, is how the new stimulus plan will work.

Hat tip to Cosmoh for the story! 8-)