President Obama’s Op-Ed in the Washington Post stating that the stimulus needs to be passed quickly hit on all the tried and true themes.
- It’s Bush’s fault.
- I won.
- America Wants Change.
What he forgot to explain is why he thinks this is an effective bill. There don’t seem to be any takers for actually defending the substance of this bill, as it is full of pork and short on economic stimulus.
So for a start, how about someone explain what about the following components of the stimulus bill are timely, targetted and temporary as President Obama previously stated would be the objective of this bill. Furthermore can anyone explain why these items fall into the ‘emergency’ category?
This list of waste is layed out in What is Congress Stimulating? from the Wall Street Journal
Title VI, Financial Services and General Government, says that “not less than $6,000,000,000 shall be used for construction, repair, and alteration of Federal buildings.” There’s enough money there to name a building after every Member of Congress.
The Bureau of Land Management gets $325,000,000 to spend fixing federal land, including “trail repair” and “remediation of abandoned mines or well sites,” no doubt left over from the 19th-century land rush.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are getting $462,000,000 for “equipment, construction, and renovation of facilities, including necessary repairs and improvements to leased laboratories.”
The National Institute of Standards gets $357,000,000 for the “construction of research facilities.” The Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets $427,000,000 for that. The country is in an economic meltdown and the federal government is redecorating.
The FBI gets $75,000,000 for “salaries and expenses.” Inside the $6,200,000,000 Weatherization Assistance Program one finds “expenses” of $500,000,000. How many bureaucrats does it take to “expense” a half-billion dollars?
The current, Senate-amended version now lists “an additional amount to be deposited in the Federal Buildings Fund, $9,048,000,000.” Of this, “not less than $6,000,000,000 shall be available for measures necessary to convert GSA facilities to High-Performance Green Buildings.” High performance?
Sen. Tom Coburn is threatening to read the bill on the floor of the Senate. I have a better idea: Read it on “Saturday Night Live.”
Such as the amendment to Section 2(3)(F) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, which will permit payments to guys employed to repair “recreational vessels.” Under Incentives for New Jobs, we find a credit to employ what the bill calls “disconnected youths,” defined as “not readily employable by reason of lacking a sufficient number of basic skills.”
Filed under: Economy, Independent, McCain, Moderate, Obama, Politics | Tagged: obama op ed, obama stimulus, obama stimulus defense, obama washington post
I got through four pages of the bill and wanted to vomit. Every time I read another summary of the bill my stomach is on fire.
I call it the impetus bill because it will not create one job, not move the economy forward one iota….instead it will impede the recovery of the economy. And I truly feel this is the icing on the cake. A bill so pork laden that ii is an Amtrak train wreck waiting to happen it may be the key that causes a Depression on the scale of 1930s…something we have never seen before.
I honestly must say I am glad my mother is gone now. One should never have to live through two deressions.
Somewhere along the way I have become pretty self suffcient. I know I can make and my family will too but what about the others!