These items are cut and pasted from different internet sites about
all of the pork in the lates stimulus package. I can't take credit
for the witty comments...
BTW this passed in the bouse without a single republican voting for
it. So this giant welfare package will be the democrats bag-o-
treats...
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Here are some numbers/items (remember, all in the name of "saving
jobs, and saving America's economy"):
Page 41: The Coast Guard wants more than $572 million
for "Acquisition, Construction, & Improvements" They claim these
funds will create 1,235 new jobs. Crunch the numbers and this brings
the cost of "creating" each job to a staggering $460,000+
Page 23: $200 million for Dep. of Defense to acquire alternative
energy vehicles.
Page 32: $1.5 billion (with a "B") for a "carbon-capturing contest"
Page 64: $3.5 billion for higher education facilities. This is
ridiculous as I know in Georgia the Board of Regents has imposed
a "temporary" (yea right!) $75 fee per student during this economic
crisis. The funds from this per-student fee stays at the school and
is used to offset current budget shortfalls.
We at AASU are starting construction on our new student center, all
paid for by student fees. No tax money has been used during any
process of this planning. How about asking other higher education
institutions to do the same, or hold off on any renovations,
additions, etc.?
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About Contact Archives RSS Columns Photos Michelle Malkin Stimulus
stupidity alert: $460,000/Coast Guard job, $1.5 bil "carbon capturing
contest," $400 mil chlamydia/HIV tests, $45 mil for ATV trails & more!
By Michelle Malkin • January 28, 2009 10:05 AM
Yellow Limes calls your attention to more stimulus stupidity in the
Senate version of the bill:
Here are some numbers/items (remember, all in the name of "saving
jobs, and saving America's economy"):
Page 41: The Coast Guard wants more than $572 million
for "Acquisition, Construction, & Improvements" They claim these
funds will create 1,235 new jobs. Crunch the numbers and this brings
the cost of "creating" each job to a staggering $460,000+
Page 23: $200 million for Dep. of Defense to acquire alternative
energy vehicles.
Page 32: $1.5 billion (with a "B") for a "carbon-capturing contest"
Page 64: $3.5 billion for higher education facilities. This is
ridiculous as I know in Georgia the Board of Regents has imposed
a "temporary" (yea right!) $75 fee per student during this economic
crisis. The funds from this per-student fee stays at the school and
is used to offset current budget shortfalls.
We at AASU are starting construction on our new student center, all
paid for by student fees. No tax money has been used during any
process of this planning. How about asking other higher education
institutions to do the same, or hold off on any renovations,
additions, etc.?
Tom Jones notes another $200 million for DoD plug-in car stations and
crunches the numbers: 53,526 plug-in cars = >$3700/car.
And check these out:
P. 45: "$25,000,000 is for recreation maintenance, especially for
rehabilitation of off-road vehicle routes, and $20,000,000 is for
trail maintenance and restoration." ATV owners, rejoice.
P. 60: $400 million for HIV and chlamydia testing.
Last night: Stimulus stupidity alert: $75 million for smoking
cessation
Wall Street Journal:
Here's another lu-lu: Congress wants to spend $600 million more for
the federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3
billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles. Congress also wants
to spend $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities.
The Smithsonian is targeted to receive $150 million; we love the
Smithsonian, too, but this is a job creator?
Another "stimulus" secret is that some $252 billion is for income-
transfer payments — that is, not investments that arguably help
everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at
all. There's $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded
unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion
for the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax.
While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out
the recession, they aren't job creators.
As for the promise of accountability, some $54 billion will go to
federal programs that the Office of Management and Budget or the
Government Accountability Office have already criticized
as "ineffective" or unable to pass basic financial audits. These
include the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business
Administration, the 10 federal job training programs, and many more.
Oh, and don't forget education, which would get $66 billion more.
That's more than the entire Education Department spent a mere 10
years ago and is on top of the doubling under President Bush. Some $6
billion of this will subsidize university building projects. If you
think the intention here is to help kids learn, the House declares on
page 257 that "No recipient . . . shall use such funds to provide
financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or
secondary schools." Horrors: Some money might go to nonunion teachers.
The larger fiscal issue here is whether this spending bonanza will
become part of the annual "budget baseline" that Congress uses as the
new floor when calculating how much to increase spending the
following year, and into the future. Democrats insist that it will
not. But it's hard — no, impossible — to believe that Congress will
cut spending next year on any of these programs from their new,
higher levels. The likelihood is that this allegedly emergency
spending will become a permanent addition to federal outlays —
increasing pressure for tax increases in the bargain. Any Blue Dog
Democrat who votes for this ought to turn in his "deficit hawk"
credentials.
This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was
written based on the wish list of every living — or dead — Democratic
interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "We won the election.
We wrote the bill." So they did. Republicans should let them take all
of the credit.