I’m sure that longtime successful and hardworking businesswoman Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach must be having second thoughts about her new role as “Santa Claus” for her congressional district.
On Monday, more than two dozen elected officials in the greater Daytona Beach area lined up to greet her at Daytona Beach International Airport to give her a laundry list of $2.4 billion in pet projects they hope to receive from the proposed $819 billion stimulus package President Obama is trying to get Congress to approve to jump-start the economy.
Those looking for their piece of the pie included mayors, city managers county councilors and other county officials.
But Rep. Kosmas knows a number of things that must make her new role very uncomfortable:
# First, not everyone is going to get his share.
# Second, to get their share governments will probably have a lot of hoops to jump through.
# Third, most of the goodies will probably arrive after the crisis is over.
# Fourth, the goodies that do arrive on time will have very little long term positive effect on the economy.
The congresswoman, whose 24th assembly district includes parts of Volusia (primarily southeast Volusia), Orange, Seminole and Brevard Counties, would no doubt like to tell the politicians that while waiting for their share of the pie, they had best be doing what they can on their own locally to cure their problems. This would include making hard decisions like cutting budgets and personnel.
"I wish I could just be Santa Claus, say 'I trust you,' and hand out the money," Kosmas told the gathering.
Kosmas also knows that there is no known case in which a government stimulus like this has really helped an economy and any jobs created by government money are usually neither permanent nor very productive.
Kosmas, the Democrat who easily defeated Republican incumbent Tom Feeney in November, knows better than most in her party that there is no free lunch.