I was just reading some articles and editorials.  I came across this one with the headline:

Lobbyists skirt Obama's earmark ban

"WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn't mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won't be able to funnel money to pet projects."

The rest of this article can be found HERE:

I only needed to quote the very first line to ask my question.  What's wrong with this article?  The answer?  The entire $825 billion economic stimulus bill IS an earmark!  It's nothing but pork spending on mostly wasteful projects and more bailouts. 

Instead of stimulating the economy by spending more of our money....or actually borrowing more money that we will one day need to pay back, just let us keep more of our money in the first place.  We will spend it.  We will stimulate the economy.  We will decide the winners and losers in the market.  The purpose of the government getting involved is solely to usurp more power and control.  If they would just get out of the way, the economy would straighten itself out.  This New Deal 2.0 is going to end up being as much of if not more of a disaster than the first one.  And make no mistake about it.....the New Deal did more harm than good for this nation.