Opposition to the $800 billion stimulus package continues to rise, and polls show support for it has fallen to 42%. Independent swing-voters oppose the “stimulus” by a whopping 23 percent margin. While Obama is still popular, the stimulus package he backs no longer is. Even pro-bailout economists like Martin Feldstein who previously supported it are now turning against it, realizing that the bill is chock full of pork. More than 200 economists have signed a petition against the package. Even the Washington Post, which strongly supported Obama in 2008, admits that the plan may not work and that there is no consensus among economists for the bill.

Meanwhile, state governments — the chief beneficiary of the stimulus package — are ramping up wasteful spending and refusing to fix long-term structural budget deficits based on their belief that they will be showered with money by the stimulus package.

The stimulus package resembles the trillion-dollar spending that exploded Japan’s national debt in the 1990s, producing an era of economic stagnation known as “the Lost Decade.”