It's hard to take republican leaders too seriously when they criticize the recovery plans for the economy; it's sort of like those geese criticizing the evacuation plans for US Airways Flight 1549. Their critiques seem even more comical when you see their alternatives. They warn that President Obama's stimulus package will explode the debt-so they want to make George W. Bush's debt-exploding tax cuts permanent. They say Democratic spending plans are full of pork-then they propose an extra $24 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal equivalent of Oscar Mayer. Let's just say their idea bank could use a bailout.rnBut there have been more serious critiques of the $900 billion-plus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-from more serious critics. The stimulus smorgasbord does include some head scratchers, like $246 million worth of tax breaks for movie producers to buy film and $1.4 billion for "rural waste-disposal programs." Principled conservatives worry that it's so big, it will institutionalize Big Government; principled liberals worry that it won't be big enough to resuscitate a flatlined economy.
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