Objecting to government spending

The economic stimulus package getting debated in the US Congress is revealing much resistance to change. The objections raised to reviving the economy with massive government spending fit a pattern in my perception. The opposing arguments look the same to me as the resistance to open learning, blogging, and PLE's. They resemble the logic that does not grasp the Web 2.0 thing, crowdsourcing and the long tail of user content generation. The opponents in Congress seem to be saying the following:

• government spending is not investing in the middle class's ability to be productive and successful
• government spending is not building the infrastructure for the next economy
• government spending is not retrofitting and remodeling buildings for energy conservation
• government spending is not revitalizing local economies and social safety nets
• government spending is not doing for citizens what they cannot do for themselves
• government spending is not leading the economy out of a recession by caring for everyone affected by it
• government spending is not money well spent that will return benefits over the long term

The objections say "government spending is only government spending". Government spending must be taken literally. It cannot be two things at once. It's only bad and no good can come of it. We make a thing of government spending, and cannot regard it as a process. We assume it "is what it is" that cannot be growing, changing, learning or creating something else.

When our minds work this way, we are convinced that we are in danger. We are react with fear to what appears threatening to our safety, survival and livelihood. We act in self interest that inadvertently makes problems worse, provoke others to act like enemies and undermine the stability we sought to reestablish. We cannot change our minds because we protect ourselves from putting our survival in greater danger than we are already in. We make enemies in order to defend ourselves. We resist change to avoid a crisis, panic attack. We are on the brink of falling into irrational bubbles.