Look, Ma, Free Money!

Forbes has a depressing little article about how the Fannie/Freddie bailout has some in Washington licking their chops for more:

A normal taxpayer might think that since the Treasury Department has just committed the government to spending an unknown (but possibly very large) amount taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Congress would be in a tightfisted mood.

But that's not the way some Washington lobbyists and politicians think. Instead, they're viewing the bailout as an invitation to push through other taxpayer-financed bailouts and aid in the few weeks that Congress will work before members break to campaign full time for the November elections.

"We're talking about the next New Deal," enthuses William McNary, president of USAction, a national coalition of grass-roots community organizers. He wants more money from Congress for everything from food stamps to inspecting and fixing bridges and roads.

And he's not alone. The article goes on to report that the Big Three auto companies are pushing for another $25 billion in low-cost federal loans on top of their current $25 billion in low-cost federal loans, "so they can build more fuel-efficient vehicles." The Dept. of Transportation wants another $8 billion. The latest round of "emergency" supplementals for the war will cost $70-100 billion (and no doubt be filled with all kinds of unnecessary goodies). And Democrats are itching for second stimulus, of maybe $50 billion, that would be spent on "infrastructure projects, Medicaid costs and local law enforcement, as well as relief for Gulf Coast residents struggling with flood costs and those in the Northeast and upper Midwest straining to pay winter heating bills."

"I got a four-letter word: j-o-b-s," said U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. "That's the focus of the second stimulus. We want to own the issue that we are the party of a jobs agenda. We will take it up as soon as we are done with the energy bill."

Whole thing here.