And I am saying we should not be spending the 700b. In fact that is the entire gist of what I am saying in general - the spending has to stop. The govt expansion has to stop. The welfare state was barely sustainable as it was, adding to it will not help.

Typically, the first step of getting out of a hole is to stop digging. Instead Obama and Pelosi busted out the largest set of mining equipment they could find and went to go find a new path to China. Thats a problem. It seems natural to me, to question the wisdom of expanding govt and spending to record levels when your currency is already weak and your economy already teetering on the brink of depression.

You are correct about corruption costing, just remember that the more bureaucracy we accumulate, the more corruption we will have to deal with. Every layer of bureaucracy that gets added, makes accountability that much further removed from your average joe.