February 17, 2009 12:47PM 

# The Biggest Check Ever Signed 

By Cato Editors 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

The Obama Administration has banked a lot of political capital on the economic “stimulus” package signed into law today, and is hailing the measure as a sound-minded reaction to a dreary economic climate. In truth, many of the programs in the bill are not only wasteful and inefficient, but have the potential to do some real long-term harm to U.S. policy.

Among them:

- [A dramatic rollback of the landmark improvements to welfare enacted in 1996](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9976) — one of the most popular and measurably effective pieces of legislation ever;
- [A back-door measure](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9927) to consolidate more power over individual health care decisions under federal government control;
- [The misguided and incendiary “Buy American” provision](https://www.cato.org/2009/02/05/buy-american-debate-is-not-dead-yet/) — a veritable repeat of the disastrous protectionist policies of the 30’s, and sure tinder for a trade firestorm with our European and Asian trading partners;
- Billions upon billions for special interest spending that [very much represents the “business as usual”](https://www.cato.org/category/budget-tax-policy/) that President Obama so vigorously campaigned against. (The nation’s most respected newspapers are [openly taking issue](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/12/AR2009021203502.html) at the suggestion that the package is free of “earmarks” for favored congressional leaders.)

The economic stimulus bill is merely a nearsighted return to government spending policies which have been [discredited over and over again](https://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb_0109-52.pdf) \[PDF\].

For more on the package, check out [Cato’s Fiscal Reality page](https://www.cato.org/fiscalreality).

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).