Ahrcanum

The stimulus bailout money does not immediately stimulate anything except my blood pressure. 

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced an amendment to prohibit any funds in the economic stimulus bill from going to museums, theaters, or arts centers among other things.  http://www.ruthulrich.com/?p=274 has the whole rundown on what should be off limits for a stimulus and most of it makes sense.

The language of the amendment against what Coburn calls the Generational Theft Act , (Amendment No. 175, as filed) is in part that, “None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas.” 

People just don’t seem to get it as “What bothers me is that museums, arts centers, and theaters are lumped in with casinos, swimming pools, rotating pastel lights, and zero-gravity chairs.  What in the holy living hell is the relation between the arts and a highway beautification project?” asks  http://klacknermusic.wordpress.com/   The relationship is simple, it does not stimulate the economy immediately and having a job, food and a place to live usurps everything else.  

Who can support this spending of invisible money that will come from our children’s children to benefit a politician sitting in a brand new cushy chair?  Apparently Nancy Pelosi.  People are standing in food lines for heaven’s sake.   Welcome to the American dream in high reverse- Lehigh Acres Florida and hundreds of other cities where no one gives a rats ass about a new community park, museum, theater, arts center, right now.  Highlighted in http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/us/08lehigh.html?_r=1&em&exprod=myyahoo  People need private sector jobs and it is the private sector that needs the loans to stimulate the economy.

Coburn says “The fundamental problem with this bill is that it fails to address the root problem, which continues to be toxic assets in the mortgage market. The bill also includes a reckless bailout to states that would effectively nationalize state governments….“The bill also contains numerous provisions that are about stimulating long-frustrated ideological agendas rather than the economy….the American people will be nauseated by the numerous and shameless.

In a WSJ article, Coburn wrote, “What is not in the bill is as troubling as what is. The package does nothing to clear the toxic assets and bad mortgages that helped trigger the credit crisis. It also contains very little meaningful tax relief to make small businesses and American companies more competitive. Instead, the tax provisions of the stimulus are essentially a modest cash handout that repeats the failed policy of George W. Bush’s rebate-check stimulus.”  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123371083449746103.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

I want Ross Perot to come out of the woodwork and help fix Pelosi’s posturing around like a chicken who just laid the golden egg.  Perot tried to gave heads up years ago- warning of the sucking sound of jobs from NAFTA among other things. No wonder he buried his head back in the private sector so as not to have to breath the same stale hot air that has been expelled in the beltway for years.

Government controlled capitalism is spelled socialism and at the very least Coburn appears to be try to rein in the wild spending spree. Visit his  site  http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=RightNow.Home&ContentRecord_id=3db704c6-802a-23ad-406c-a424db591389  where you’ll find more wasteful and Non-Stimulus Spending Provisions like-

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Dept. of Energy defended last year because the project was inefficient
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film
• $650 million for the digital television (DTV) converter box coupon program
• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship)
• $448 million for constructing the Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters
• $248 million for furniture at the new Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees
• $400 million for the CDC to screen and prevent STD’s
• $1.4 billion for a rural waste disposal programs
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion
• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities”
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI
• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings
• $500 million for state and local fire stations
• $650 million for wildland fire management on Forest Service lands
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities
• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property
• $500 million for building and repairing NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the VA “National Cemetery Administration”
• $850 million for Amtrak
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint
• $75M to construct a new “security training” facility for State Dept Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.
• State Medicaid Bailout: $87.7 billion Through 3 different mechanisms, the bill would provide additional federal funds to state Medicaid programs over the next 3 years. This is nearly $70 billion more than the governors asked President Obama for in December, and should be a loan to be repaid by the states.

Who knew democratic socialism was going to be so damned expensive?

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