Stimulus bill: the good and the bad
Personally, I’m a little sick of my tax money, my parents tax money, even my grandparents tax money being spent so carelessly. This particular legislation really frustrates me because despite Obama’s pledge to listen to Republicans and make it a true bipartisan bill.
The bill, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), does contain some very smart, long-term approaches that would provide jobs as well as provide services to citizens.
The part I adamantly support is extending broadband access to businesses in rural areas. In this day and age if you live in one of the most advanced countries in the world and are not able to connect to the rest of the world, you seriously are at a disadvantage. Not only does the Internet allow business connections to be made, but it also allows sharing of ideas and knowledge. I can’t tell you how many times I have learned something new from Google or Wikipedia.
Another noteworthy thing about the ARRA is that there is a Web site solely dedicated to posting how the money is being spent for the public to see. The Web site, http://recovery.gov, promises that an oversight board will post how money is spent in a way to try and prevent waste and keep the money being spent the right way.
The two parties also both agreed that there would be no earmarks on this bill. I’m not na’ve enough to think that means pet projects won’t be there, they’ll just be well hidden.
Now I do have some problems with this new stimulus bill.
The bill has a focus on rebuilding America’s infrastructures in an attempt to provide jobs. The ARRA wants to rebuild roads, bridges and waterways. Now this sounds good in theory. But people forget we have all those things already.
Rebuilding roads will cause more traffic, which in turn will cause more pollution from individuals sitting idly in their car cursing. There’s the same problem with bridges. We’d have to build replacement, temporarily bridges to use while we repair the old ones. Thus, more work and construction and even more cursing.
One issue that Obama has been pushing in this bill is the modernization of medical records. He claims that this will speed up medical visits and prevent mistakes. Again, this is something that sounds good in theory, but has one huge flaw in it.
Computers crash. Every person has experienced a computer meltdown. Murphy’s Law happens, whether it be a virus that causes the computer to crash or just a frozen screen, the worst possible thing will happen at the worst possible moment. If we put such important information on to computers that could possibly crash then it could cause crisis at the worst possible moment. All it’d take to show the holes in this is a woman to break her arm and not be admitted to a hospital because the computer with her records crashed.
On top of crashes, computers can be hacked. Even some of the top governmental databases have been hacked before. Having personal information on a computer that could be compromised poses a serious threat to identity theft.
All and all this bill has good intentions. Obviously, the economy needs something to knock it back into place, but I don’t think this bill is the right thing. I feel that the Obama administration is rushing to get some sort of a bill out there when I’d prefer they slow down and really think. That way we can get it right.this time.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Jan 30 2009. Filed under Opinion.
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