Friday, February 6, 2009

Stimulus? How about pork city!

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Details of the 'stimulus' plan, from an article on National Review....

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”
$15 billion for business-loss carry-backs
$145 billion for “Making Work Pay” tax credits
$83 billion for the earned income credit
$150 million for the Smithsonian
$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
$1 billion for the Census Bureau
$89 billion for Medicaid
$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for food stamps
$4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
$850 million for Amtrak
$87 million for a polar icebreaking ship
$1.7 billion for the National Park System
$55 million for Historic Preservation Fund
$7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs”
$150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases
$150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish”
$2 billion for renewable-energy research ($400 million for global-warming research)
$2 billion for a “clean coal” power plant in Illinois
$6.2 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program
$3.5 billion for energy-efficiency and conservation block grants
$3.4 billion for the State Energy Program
$200 million for state and local electric-transport projects
$300 million for energy-efficient-appliance rebate programs
$400 million for hybrid cars for state and local governments
$1 billion for the manufacturing of advanced batteries
$1.5 billion for green-technology loan guarantees
$8 billion for innovative-technology loan-guarantee program
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$4.5 billion for electricity grid
$79 billion for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund


My guess? One political party has gotten total control of the budget, taxes, and law making process. In one grand spasm they have lumped in every expensive boondogle piece of pork thats been on the back burner. They don't have to care one bit what the other side says. They have made it clear they care nothing for what the public says. They have most of the media in the tank. They have the Presidency, The entire Congress, most of the Governors offices, and every appointed government hack in the tank.

The administrations own numbers say this massive debt act might, might create or save 250,000 jobs. So thats... what.... $36,000,000 per job?

Folks... this obscenity is not about jobs, and its not about stimulating the economy. It's about grabbing money and power while the grabbing is good.

I expect the first recipient of all this moola will be Vaseline, by the tanker train load.


2 comments:

Home on the Range said...

This is not a "stimulus" but nothing more than various thugs payoffs to collective patrons of their anointments, from voter fraud corrupted "community outreach organizers" to pipe dream environmentalists to those that manipulate currency to promote their own agendas.

Take that money and give it to the people who are out of work due to corrupt corporations, greedy banks and mortgage market manipulators and I bet the economy would be stimulated 10 times as fast. This money is gone, with likely more to follow. The market collapse is eventual, but those that voted for it will be protected. The American public will be the ones that suffer for the shortsighted greed.

And you wonder why I'm awake this late.

Our future has been sold.

"He's just this guy, you know?" said...

I also ended up awake later than I intended, by an hour or so. Sleep was not the easiest to come by last night.

I see you understand the reality of this very well.

This weekend.... Good food and some range time. Time with friends and family, some bright spots to enjoy. While it's still possible.