Piso’s Justice, Obama’s Obstinacy

Seneca, a Roman thinker for our time, left us the story of Gnaeus Piso, a man who played obstinacy to the point of absurdity. Gnaeus sentenced a soldier to death for the commission of a murder, but just before the execution was to be carried out, the man who was supposed to have been murdered showed up at the execution.

The Centurion in charge stopped the execution and reported the miscarriage of justice to Piso. Piso was enraged that his order was not carried out and condemned all three to death: the first for already having been sentenced, the Centurion for not carrying out the execution, and the man who was supposed to have been murdered for being the reason for the deaths of the other two.

Somewhere, the logic of this tragedy escapes modern man; just as the logic of Obama’s second stimulus of 50 billion escapes all those that are not part of the giant swindle that is designed to cripple the American economy and bring an ever greater number of people under the umbrella of the government payroll and direction.

In a last minute scramble to save some legislative seats for those Democrats still sucking the hind teats of the Obama Administration or at least for those few who still claim to be aligned with Obama, there is now a gigantic vote buying scheme that leverages all American taxpayers for generations to try and salvage one of the most miserable failures of an administration in American history. Using $50 billion to buy votes, a number so large that only mathematicians can grasp its enormity, the simple minded Harvard educated ‘sort of a professor’ who worked at community organizing until a Senate gig came along with a promise of a chance at the presidency, he is absolutely sure he can keep America from going bankrupt by bankrupting the country.

WASHINGTON — Appealing to a union crowd on Labor Day, President Obama on Monday is calling for a $50 billion investment in long-term infrastructure projects that the administration claims will stimulate the flailing economy, create jobs and refill the exhausted highway trust fund.

Though the infrastructure package is aimed at the next six years, the investment of $50 billion is intended to be a “front-loaded” expansion of the $814 billion stimulus package that emphasized shovel-ready projects.

“The plan builds upon the infrastructure investments the president has already made through the Recovery Act, includes principles the president put forth during the campaign and emphasizes American competitiveness and innovation,” reads a statement from the White House press office.

Congress has no appetite to enact a second stimulus and the White House insists that it will not seek one. But through a series of separate measures to be rolled out by the president this week, including a $100 billion research and development tax credit, a hiring incentives package for small- and medium-sized business and a $42 billion small business package already saddling the Senate, the tally is adding up quickly.

The infrastructure plans include the rebuilding of 150,000 miles of roads, 150 miles of runways, 4,000 miles of railways, a new air navigation system(hopefully, not designed to vector terrorists to their targets) and a new federal bank that presumably he will control to aid in restructuring loans to those who can’t afford the houses they buy.

Congressional Democrats see a painless way to pay for the stimulus by closing tax breaks on the oil ad gas industry so that the average American pays higher energy costs while Democrats continue to feed at the trough and the American economy is strangled even more to keep the Socialists in power.

The goals of the infrastructure plan include: rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads; constructing and maintaining 4,000 miles of railways, enough to go coast-to-coast; and rehabilitating or reconstructing 150 miles of airport runways, while also installing a new air navigation system designed to reduce travel times and delays.

Obama will also call for the creation of a permanent infrastructure bank that would focus on funding national and regional infrastructure projects.

Administration officials wouldn’t say what the total cost of the infrastructure investments would be, but did say the initial $50 billion represents a significant percentage. Officials said the White House would consider closing a number of special tax breaks for oil and gas companies to pay for the proposal.

Obama made infrastructure investments a central part of the $814 billion stimulus Congress passed last year, but with that spending winding down, the economy’s growth has slowed. Officials said this infrastructure package differs from the stimulus because it’s aimed at long-term growth, while still focusing on creating jobs in the short-term.

The president hasn’t mentioned whether there will be tunnels for turtles or contributions to European banks or how many millions will be spent on mosques in Somalia and the Middle East.

As a topping on this pudding of corruption, Obama is urging the Senate to pass the small business bill that will offer temporary tax breaks and a $30 billion fund to help unfreeze lending. If the new stimulus is as pathetic as the first stimulus, there will be many rich Democrats and the rest of the country will be mired in poverty for generations.