I am wishing Obama the best, and exclaim to naysayers, "
Give him a chance!" Then I hear the response, "
Did you see the items on the stimulus package he is trying to get passed? You will hate him if you read all those items that don't even stimulate the economy." I have to admit, the details of this stimulus package are a disappointment alright - looks like the stimulus package is far more pork than stimulus:
Democrats would like us to believe the $825 billion dollar stimulus package is required to recover from the recession. In fact, this bill is nothing but a conglomeration of the spending packages they have dreamed about for the past few decades. The main stream media also seems to have forgotten to tell us that with interest this bill comes to over $1.1 trillion dollars. This debt amounts to over $9,000 per family in taxes.
According to the Wall Street Journal only 12% of the package could conceivably be regarded as stimulating the economy. Even if we accept Obama’s claim that this bill would save or create 3.7 million jobs, that would amount to a cost of $200,000 per job.
Although many of the expenditures are admirable, they certainly can’t be considered a stimulus by any stretch of the imagination. Below is a partial list of the earmarks contained in this monstrosity.
This bill would add from 244,000 to 330,000 new government jobs. These are jobs that will not add to the growth of our economy and would tend to kill many private sector jobs as dollars for these jobs are no longer available to companies.
Global Warming $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$400 million for global-warming research
$600 million for grants for diesel emission reduction (Page 119)
Government Upgrades $2.5 billion for the National Science Foundation
$2.0 billion for the National Park Service
$1.9 billion for the Energy Department for “basic research into the physical sciences
$1 Billion for The Follow-Up To The 2010 Census (Page 49)
$800 million for AMTRAK
$650 million for the U.S. Forest Service
$600 million for NASA
$600 million for new cars for the federal government
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+
$400 million for a new Social Security Administration computer system
$276 million to the State Department to upgrade and modernize its information technology
$245 million to upgrade the information technology of the Farm Service Agency
$227 million for oversight of the pork barrel spending in the stimulus (Page 11)
$209 million for maintenance work for the Federal Agricultural Research Service
$200 million for Dept. of Defense to acquire alternative energy vehicles.
$200 million to re-sod the National Mall
$150 million for maintenance work at the Smithsonian Institution
$44 million for repairs and improvements at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Department of Agriculture
Schools 66B on education, but they specifically exclude private K-12 schools from getting one dime of it.
$17 billion for Pell Grants
$13 billion in IDEA, Part B State grants to help pay for “the excess costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities. Link
$13 billion in Title I grants “to provide extra academic support to help raise the achievement of students at risk of educational failure or to help all students in high-poverty schools meet challenging State academic standards
$6 billion goes to college and universities
$3.5 billion for higher education facilities.
$2.1 billion is for Head Start
$1 billion for Technology Education
$250-million for an after-school snack program.
Social Programs $87 billion is to be spent on Medicaid, a welfare program already costing roughly $400 billion per year
$83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don’t pay income tax
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for increased food stamps, including lifting restrictions on how long welfare dependents can receive food stamp benefits.
$6 billion program to “weatherize modest-income homes Link
$5 billion is devoted to public housing
$3 billion for health care prevention and wellness programs, such as childhood immunizations and other state and local public health programs
$2 billion is to be spent on Child Care Development Block Grants, which provide day care.
$1.7 billion is to be spent to help the homeless
$1.1 billion for so-called federal comparative effectiveness research in regard to health-care services
$1 billion goes for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program, to help low income families pay their heating bills
$500 million to speed the processing of applications for Social Security disability claims.
$200 million goes for senior nutrition programs, such as Meals on Wheels
$200 million for AmeriCorps, to help satisfy “increased demand for services for vulnerable populations to meet critical needs in communities across the U.S.
$120 million to finance part-time work for seniors in community service agencies.
$100 million to reduce lead-based paint hazards for children in low income housing
MISC New Programs $136 billion of the bill is for unproven ideas—to start 32 new federal programs.
$79 billion is to go the states to maintain their runaway government spending, particularly for such spendthrift jurisdictions as California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts
$5.2 billion for ACORN, the left-leaning nonprofit group under federal investigation for massive voter fraud. Link Community organizers, such as the left-wing lobbying group ACORN, would get their own new slush fund of up to $750-million.
$4.2 billion provided to the Neighborhood Stabilization Fund, which provides the funds to local governments to purchase and rehab vacant housing due to foreclosure
$2 billion for Superfund cleanup
$1.2 billion for summer jobs for youth
$1 billion to the controversial Community Oriented Policing Services COPS Hiring
$650 million for digital TV coupons to help Americans upgrade to digital cable television
$335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
$50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts to help “the arts community throughout the United States.
$400 million for “habitat restoration projects” of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
$246 million for Hollywood
$200M for plug-in car stations (Page 31)
$150 million for honey bee insurance
$75 million for smoking cessation
$10M for bike and walking trails (Page 65)
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