Several points
1. The cost of the Iraq war is less than the $800 Billion porker bill that ensures the growth of government. The cost of the Iraq war has also been spread out over 6 years, vs. 1 large lump sum - which will probably set a new "baseline" for continued spending, therefore the Congressional Budget Office projects that the $800 Billion porker bill will cost almost $4 Trillion over the next 10 years, if we include interest costs and continue the top 20 "programs" on a yearly basis.
2. The cost of the Iraq war is a sore point to those who wish Saddam was still in power, able to terrorize his own people while getting billions of dollars through the corrupt UN "Food for Oil" program ...and while slipping millions of dollars to terrorists. They claim that the people of Iraq would be better off under the rule of Saddam ...
3. The Iraq war is a convenient straw man for liberals to beat upon - if you ignore all the concerns that they had about Saddam, his WMD programs (which he did have), and how he would be a big risk if nothing was done. ONLY when we didn't find ACTIVE WMD programs, did the liberals then claim that they were deceived and that we should never have gone to war. These sort of people would have caused us to loose to Germany and Japan.
4. The typical liberal rant is that Bush spent billions unnecessarily - and then they rant about all the programs that he underfunded ....and they complain about his Education program (No Child Left Behind), Senior Citizen Drug program, and they complain that the programs were too small. Then, after whining about the big budget busting spending, their solution is to ..... spend even more money!!
5. And finally - they complain about how Bush, with his deregulation, caused the financial meltdown ... all while trying to keep the public from finding out how Bush requested - over 20 times, more regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the liberals filibustered any stiffening of regulations. They don't want the public to know that the major "de-regulation" was a bi-partisan plan that was signed by Bill Clinton in 1998. They don't want the public to know how much the Community Reinvestment Act (pushed by Carter, expanded by Clinton) was what sowed the seeds of the sub-prime loans, giving NINJA loans to applicants who should never have been given a mortgage, etc .....and all this did was to create an artificial housing price bubble that popped in early 2008 ....and that Bush and Republicans were warning about the problem in 2003, 2004, 2005, etc., but the Democrats stopped any action from happening.
So .... will the $800 Billion porker program work .... that depends on what is expected.
Recall that in 1979 - 1980 - when we had double digit inflation and unemployment - far worse that the problems we are presently having (in spite of the lies that Obama, the Democrats claim) ... Ronald Reagan became President, and cut taxes, cut regulations on private enterprise, encouraged the private sector to grow ...and about 2 1/2 years later, the economy started a long-term boom. Pres. Reagan was successful with a program of smaller government, less spending, etc.
Then recall that in 1933, FDR became president. He continued (and increased) the big government policies of Hoover - more taxes, more government spending, bigger programs (sort of an Obama-lite) ...and 8 years later, he too could look back with success. Their goal wasn't to fix the economy, because unemployment was still high, taxes were high, the depression continued on ....but he created a welfare mentality amongst the populace that would blindly vote Democrat ...and keep the Democrats in power for many many years.
So - Obama's program MIGHT be as successful as FDR ...in generating a nation of sheep who figure big government is the solution - even if it means becoming another socialist Europe, with low job growth, high unemployment and high taxes.
But I don't think the stimulus package will help our nation.
