We've seen this movie before

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.

The stimulus package that the President is referring to of course, is porkulus. Porkulus, remember, was not going to let unemployment get above 8 percent (currently at 10) and was going to do this by "creating jobs" via infrastructure projects and by propping up state and local governments to save the jobs of public safety workers and teachers.

And just back in February, a $15 billion jobs bill, son of porkulus, was passed which was to be a quick infusion of cash into the economy to save teachers jobs but in reality was a Congressional photo-op to prove to a skeptical public that while mired in a bruising fight over ObamaCare, the Congress and the President were still quite capable of flushing money down the toilet.

Which brings us to where we are today: a still sputtering economy that is wracked by high unemployment and where the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been spent through stimulus projects and Keynesian demand-side gimmickry have only delayed/prevented a true and robust recovery. And Congress really thinks this additional $50 billion is going to actually accomplish anything of lasting value or substance?

And remember that the requested $50 billion is on top of the original $800+ billion porkulus package which was designed to roll out most of the spending this year, an election year.

It remains a mystery to us that the lesson of not being able to tax and spend your way to prosperity let alone anything resembling a recovery is lost on so many people.