ReasonedResponse.com

I've stayed out of the cat fights over the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the highly heralded economic stimulus package -- for three reasons.

First, in spite of the invective you may read and the famous quote by Mark Twain ("Suppose your were an idiot.  And suppose you were a member of Congress.  Oh, but I repeat myself."), Members of Congress are not stupid.  Most of them are hard-working, dedicated people trying to do their best for their constituents and their country.  And while they do make some horrible policy mistakes, the bill they are passing deserves to be taken seriously.

Second, all they have done is authorize the spending.  There is still a matter of finding the money to actually do it.  And while a $1 Trillion price tag seems staggering, it is unlikely we will spend anywhere near that much.  Particularly because...

Third, we are already on our way out of the recession, IMHO.  I have a very accurate barometer of the economy here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and my barometer says things are already mending.

I keep a close eye on Sunday morning breakfasts at the Hawksbill Diner.  For those who do not live in the valley of the Shenandoah River, the Hawksbill Diner is legendary.  A tiny, converted convenience store that has been around almost as long as the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Hawksbill DIner (named for the river that flows nearby) serves a fine breakfast.  You can see almost all of your neighbors there of a Sunday, unless you wait too long and the tourists take all the tables.

The point is that last fall people would come in (you have to have breakfast at the Hawksbill, then go to the WalMart to see all your neighbors, or you are considered unsociable here in the valley) but would only order a biscuit and coffee, not a real breakfast.  Times were hard and people were scared.

Today, the breakfast trade is just fine at the Diner, and at WalMart as well.

That's how I know things are improving.  People are eating breakfast on Sunday Mornings.

And I know that the stimulus bill, while as a conservative libertarian I am not happy about, will not mean the destruction of all things American.  It may actually work, and may actually do some good.  I know this because I have actually gone to the Thomas web site at the Library of Congress and read all 800-some pages of the bill.

Which is something virtually none of the media people reporting on it, the radio show hosts who lambast it, or the so-called advocates who swoon over it have bothered to do.  Reading legislation before you pass judgement on it -- what a concept!