Post-Reflection: ‘Economic Stimulus’ Passed...

I’ve never been a big fan of horror films, but a lot of similarities exist between history’s most-successful horror-flick franchise, “Friday the 13th,” and the so-called “Economic Stimulus Package” approved by both houses of Congress on Friday the 13th and expected to be signed by President Barack Obama next week.

POOR REVIEWS

In much the same manner as the original “Friday the 13th” movie received poor reviews from critics and still managed to rake in big bucks at the box office, the stimulus package — officially known as the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” — received poor reviews from discerning critics (i.e., conservatives) but still managed to garner enough votes from the Academy (i.e., Democrat-controlled Congress) to succeed at the box office (i.e., Treasury Department).

BIG MONEY

Despite being the highest-grossing horror franchise in the United States and earning approximately $591.5 million during it’s first 28 years ending Jan. 17, 2008, according to Box Office Mojo, Friday the 13th pales in comparison to Congress on the money front.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (as cited in this article), the pork-laden stimulus bill is expected to total more than $3.27 trillion over the next decade. For the math-challenged, that’s more than 5,500 times the earnings generated by the movie.

BAD ACTORS

Despite the movie franchise’s three-decades run, most American horror-movie buffs cannot name a single actor who has appeared in a “Friday the 13th” movie and will not likely be able to identify the stars of the just-released version (i.e., Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker and Amanda Righetti) after its relegated to Blu-Ray.

Similarly, most American taxpayers do not know how members of their own Congressional delegations, the elected officials purporting to serve their interests, voted on the stimulus bill. Still, they keep re-electing these “bad actors” based upon disingenuous campaign trail performances, direct mail pitches and online presence (i.e., YouTube videos, Twittering, social networking, etc.).

FUTURE GENERATIONS

Since the first “Friday the 13th” movie hit theaters in 1980, hundreds of millions of Americans have made decisions to pay money to view the blood-and-gore movies put out by the movie franchise. Following yesterday’s release of yet another revenue-generating film, I have no doubt millions more will do the same during years to come if they can afford it.

Unfortunately, several generations of voting-age Americans might soon find themselves unable to afford such luxuries as viewing a “Friday the 13th” film as they will be hamstrung with paying off the trillions of dollars of debt created by the gargantuan spending measure. Likewise, millions more — our children, grandchildren and future generations yet to be born — will be forced to help pay the tab for the irresponsible largesse of the 111th Congress despite having had no say in the matter.

There, unfortunately, is where the similarities between the movie franchise and so-called “stimulus” end.