Now, I can understand, much as I don't like it, bailing out the banks because without a functioning financial system, the economy breaks down.
What I don't understand is the pressure to pass the stimulus bill, in truth a spending bill. This recession is nowhere near as bad as the recession in 1981-1982 or 1973-1975 as this graph from JMF shows
Viking pundit via Maggie's Farm says
Including debt service, the cost of the Generational Theft Act is estimated at $1.175 trillion, all of which will be borrowed to be paid by America's children.
Think of it this way: we're going to borrow and spend almost one Russia, or one India. We could buy South Korea or Mexico. We could have our own continent by purchasing Australia and all their handsome actors and actresses. We could have Belgium, Sweden, and still have some pocket change left over for Greece. We could have five Hong Kongs.
Personally, I'd much rather buy Australia.
Harvard economist Robert Barro, says in the Atlantic
This is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s. I don't know what to say. I mean it's wasting a tremendous amount of money. It has some simplistic theory that I don't think will work, so I don't think the expenditure stuff is going to have the intended effect. I don't think it will expand the economy. And the tax cutting isn't really geared toward incentives. It's not really geared to lowering tax rates; it's more along the lines of throwing money at people. On both sides I think it's garbage. So in terms of balance between the two it doesn't really matter that much.