A Rush For Stimulus To Avoid Economic Catastrophe

The debate on stimulus continues and the bill on the Senate floor continues to grow toward one trillion dollars. Meanwhile, unless the package dramatically changes only twelve cents of every dollar will eventually be for economic stimulus.

The remainder will be just a huge bill of pork. The one area that has not had much discussion is the stimulus given to the states. Here is some of what this taxpayer money will go to:

From Today's Wall Street Journal:

Las Vegas, which by some accounts already glitters, wants $2 million for neon signs. Boynton Beach, Fla., is looking for $4.5 million for an "eco park" featuring butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises and Chula Vista, Calif., would like $500,000 to create a place for dogs to run off the leash. These are among 18,750 projects listed in "Ready to Go," the U.S. Conference of Mayors' wish list for funding from the stimulus bill moving through Congress. The group asked cities and towns to suggest "shovel ready" projects for the report, which it gave to Congress and the Obama administration. Although the bulk of proposals are roads, sewers and similar projects, some wouldn't require a shovel at all. The mayors group sees a potential 1.6 million new jobs from the projects, though a few of them wouldn't create any. Some localities are using a kitchen-sink strategy. "Our approach has been to list everything, because we don't know what the final guidelines will be or what the final dollar amount will be," says Greg MacLean, public-works director in Lincoln, Neb. Among entries on Lincoln's list is a $3 million environmentally friendly clubhouse for a municipal golf course.

So, does the United States government just give money to the states to fund all these dubious "shovel ready" projects? It seems that money going to these projects should be separately approved and be made transparent all the way down to the local level.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama warned again today that the financial crisis will turn into "a catastrophe" if a stimulus bill isn't passed quickly. This is the same haste that was used to approve the TARP program. A program that still has not achieved anything, is constantly changing, and has billions of dollars being spent without any transparency.

Its the dubious crisis politics of today. Its the rush to spend a trillion in the hope to avoid economic catastrophe. So, what happens if this stimulus solution doesnt work and an out of control deficit sends the dollar into a free fall? Then we will see an economic catastrophe and realize that spending hundreds of billions of dollars on pork was not really a practical solution at all.

The House Passes The Bill That Stimulates Pork

The Stimulus Bill passed the House Of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 244 to 188. The Bill passed without a single Republican vote and with 10 Democrats voting against it. The Bill now moves on to the Senate for its consideration.

The $819 billion dollar Stimulus Bill contains little stimulus and lots of government pork. The Bill features the following government pork according to the Wall Street Journal:

$7.7 billion for various upgrades and work done on federal buildings
$5.2 billion for voter fraud experts ACORN and other "neighborhood stabilization" groups
$2.4 billion for carbon capture projects
$1 billion for AMTRAK
$650 million more for coupons for the conversion to digital television
$600 million for federal automobiles
$400 million for research into global warming
$335 million for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases
$50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts

Also Read Todays Daily Vu :An Economic Crisis That Won't Go To Waste

Stimulus Is Just Government Pork By Another Name

There is a trillion dollar spending plan being debated in Congress and endorsed by President Barack Obama to stimulate the United States economy.

We are being told that this government spending spree is needed right away to save jobs and the economy during this deep recession.

The problem with the passage of this plan is that it will have little effect on the economy during the next year. In additon, it is money that the government does not have since it already runs a over a trillion dollar deficit. The truth of this economic stimulus bill is that it is just more government pork under a new name.

Consider that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that only 7 percent of infrastructure money in the bill would make its way into the economy by the end of the year, and just 38 percent would be spent by the end of the 2010 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the bill is loaded with pork and is a lobbyist delight. There is a $50 million outlay for the National Endowment for the Arts to help fund arts groups hit by a drop-off in philanthropy.

The bill has a $87 billion package to help states with the Medicaid costs of family planning which will result in spending millions of taxpayer dollars on contraceptives.

There is $200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall and $650 million to repair Forest Service facilities. There is another $1.8 billion to repair National Park Service facilities. Indeed the pork in the bill goes on and on.

Out of control federal spending will not end this deep recession. The current federal policies do not represent political change. In Washington D.C., its just more of the same on a much larger scale in a new year under a different name.

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