Porkulus II Coming Soon

The first Porkulus bill has worked so well the government is now saying a second bill may be necessary:

“We are going to need more taxpayer money,” Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com and a key economic advisor to Congressional Democrats, said after the meeting. “I think another stimulus package is a reasonable assumption because of the way things are going.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), standing with members of her leadership team by Zandi’s side, said she agreed that another stimulus bill is being considered as an option.

“We have to keep the door open,” Pelosi said. “The word of the day is confidence. Confidence in our markets, confidence in lending, confidence in our financial institutions.”

Confidence? Who's confident? Look at this headline on Drudge: POLL: 53% THINK AMERICA ENTERING DEPRESSION

The GOP has a plan of its own:

I've just learned that a group of Republican lawmakers plans to introduce a second stimulus bill, which they call the "No Cost Stimulus Act of 2009." Members of the group, whose leaders include Rep. John Shadegg in the House and Sen. David Vitter in the Senate, have tried to come up with a plan that, in their estimation, would create two million new jobs, reduce the cost of energy, especially for lower-income Americans, make the U.S. less energy dependent, and not add to the national debt.

To do this, the plan would, among other things, speed up leasing for oil and gas exploration in the outer continental shelf; open up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for energy production "in an environmentally-sensitive way" and with revenues directed to renewable energy projects; speed the licensing procedure for new nuclear power plants; speed the resolutions of lawsuits over federal oil and gas leasing; and prohibit the Endangered Species Act and Clean Air Act from being used as the basis for cap-and-trade and other carbon regulation/taxation.

The proposal is sure to elicit howls some Democrats and environmental groups. From a Republican point of view, it seems designed to echo the GOP's last big legislative momentum-builder, its "Drill Here, Drill Now" campaign to beat back Democratic energy/environmental proposals. How it will fare in a political environment that is radically different from last summer's remains to be seen.

Here's how you market it with a very simple slogan: We tried it your way the first time and it didn't work. Now try it our way and let's see who's vision is successful.