I know that there are a lot of folks out there who've been saying, 'Oh, this is pork, and this is money that's going to be wasted,' and et cetera, et cetera. Understand, this bill does not have a single earmark in it, which is unprecedented for a bill of this size. ... There aren't individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill. -President Obama, February 10, 2009.
Really, Mr. President? No pork in the stimulus? Well then, how do you define some of the ludicrous expenses tucked in this behemoth of a bill?
Some left-wing pet projects included in spending frenzy
-$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”
Laudable goals? Maybe. Goals that should, in this citizen's opinion, be achieved through charity and not government, but either way you look at it, none of these items will do much to stimulate the economy. By the way, ACORN will be eligible to apply for and receive a good portion of this money. If there ever really is any transparency, as the Prez has promised, I'm sure we will see millions, if not billions go to voter fraud. I have a feeling that that transparency is going to be rather opaque.
Some items that will benefit Washington D.C. infrastructure
-$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
Is our capital falling down? This list sure makes it seems so! New buildings for everyone! Ooh, and new cars too! Let's get those cute trendy little Priuses! And, after you drive your new car to your new work building, go ahead and sit down at your new computer!
Seriously? How is bankrupting my children so that government employees can have nice things going to stimulate our economy?
Here are few other wealth redistribution goodies
-$89 billion for Medicaid
-$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
-$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
-$20 billion for food stamps
Now I'm really stumped. Anyone want to explain to me how providing extra free stuff (health care, food, and just plain cash) for the unemployed is going to encourage them to get a job?
Even more random spending
-$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”
Amtrak is getting a cut of this? Do you know when the last time Amtrak produced a profit was? Decades ago! I wish I could suck at my job and still get paid! Must be nice. Hmmm, maybe the $850,000,000 for money-pit Amtrak was thrown in because Joe Biden's son Hunter sits on the board? Say it together boys and girls- nepotism!
And speaking of ridiculous expenditures, why exactly are we spending money on a polar icebreaking ship? Haven't the dems been saying for years that the ice caps are melting?
Speaking of ice, the above bullet points are just the tip of the iceberg on this $838 billion dollar package meant to stimulate our economy by proving jobs to out of work Americans.
I believe Shakespeare said it best through Juliet;
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself."
Only this stimulus is not even close to Romeo of dear perfection. It is pork. Let's call it like it is, okey dokey? After all, President Obama, you were the one that called for a new era of responsibility and transparency.
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