Friday, February 06, 2009
Fifty pigs in the stimulus bill
The National Review has actually read the stimulus bill that passed the House of Representatives, and it has identified the fifty "most outrageous" appropriations. Read the whole thing, with these tasty morsels as an appetizer.
$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 $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
It is hard to see how any of these items (and any number of others) "lay the groundwork for long-term growth," which Barack Obama said was the objective of the bill in his speech moments ago. I am all for a stimulus bill, even a big one, but a few weeks either way is not going to make any difference at all, and the rush to push this through without a line-by-line debate is entirely manufactured. We may have to do this again, so we cannot waste money the first time.
CWCID: Power Line.
7 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Fri Feb 06, 12:55:00 PM:
Do you still have hopes Obama will emerge as a centrist, TH? He tells people what they want to hear. Then he continues to skip merrily down the Liberal-brick road.
I remember community organizers during the implementation of LBJ's Great Society Progams. The organizers said they believed in "citizen participation" during the development of solutions to urban problems. The organizers listened and listened. Afterward, they did what they planned to do from the beginning.
For one low-income neighborhood, community organizers sought funding for 120 projects. Meanwhile, the residents of the neighborhood simply wanted some street lights and some house paint.
By Viking Kaj, at
Fri Feb 06, 12:55:00 PM:
Sounds like the Chicago Way to me, a little pork for everyone.
By 
, at
Fri Feb 06, 01:02:00 PM:
Niall Ferguson has an interesting take on all this at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ferg6-2009feb06,0,6972232.column
M.E.
By Viking Kaj, at
Fri Feb 06, 01:11:00 PM:
^ A Scotsman taking issue with Keynes, now there's a surprise.
By Viking Kaj, at
Fri Feb 06, 01:22:00 PM:
OK, THIS IS NOT FUNNY. Where is the extra $ 100 Million for the "infrastructure improvements" to the White Sox bull pen next year? Spring training starts in a few weeks and we need a bail out, pronto.
By , at
Fri Feb 06, 04:29:00 PM:
Cut taxes, increase production/availability of ammo, and let the chips fall where they may.
If you're willing to work for food, I have work to do, and can pay for it with my lower tax burden. If you're not willing to work for it, but want it anyway, I have ammo to make sure you don't get it from me.
This guy is a clown, and Pelosi is owning him right now. Americans want blood - from bankers, rats who're shirking their debts, politicians who've been beating the taxpayer by not paying their fair share of tax. Obama should be ashamed to have nominated people he's too freaking lazy to have vetted.
By , at
Fri Feb 06, 06:44:00 PM:
Don't underestimate Obama. The guy moved to the right to get elected. He was far to the left of most Democrat politicians let alone the base.
They may delete some billions of pork, but I bet none of the welfare items will be struck. You know, the items which will become part of the non-discretionary part of the budget.
