Sunday, February 1, 2009

The stimulus package is criminal

The Wall Street Journal calls the $825 billion stimulus package "a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years". Believe it. I'm not smart enough to know if we even need a stimulus bill, but I am smart enough to know that we certainly don't need one in which only 12 cents of every $1 has any chance of spurring economic growth. And so are the Democrats. Of course, what's good for the country seldom coincides with Democrat desires.

Below is $314 billion of fat that the Democrats have included in the stimulus, every penny of it some form of welfare designed to buy votes. And while you're choking on the numbers, remember that Obama has just instructed the Joint Chiefs to cut the defense budget by almost 11% - $55 billion. Priorities.

• $83 billion in welfare payments (the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax)
• $81 billion for Medicaid
• $66 billion on "education", more than the entire Department of Education required just ten years ago
• $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
• $20 billion for food stamps
• $8 billion on "renewable energy" projects, which have a low or negative return
• $7 billion for "modernizing federal buildings and facilities"
• $6 billion on urban transit systems, dominated by unions and which, almost universally, lose money
• $2.4 billion for "carbon-capture demonstration projects"
• $2 billion for child-care subsidies
• $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years
• $650 million for "digital TV conversion coupons" (on top of billions already spent)
• $600 million on new cars for government (added to the $3 billion already spent each year)
• $400 million for "global-warming research"
• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

3 comments:

The Archduke of Arrogance said...

Higher taxes + a gutted military = plenty of welfare fo' tha brothas. It's the Clinton admin all over again.

Wonder Woman said...

Reading this post was bad enough, until I got to the bottom and saw "400 million for global-warming research" ... that almost made me sick

Anonymous said...

It's sad to say but..... This country needs another 9/11 style attack (only it will be bigger) before we Americans get our heads out of our asses again! Remember all the flags you saw on 9/10.... oh no wait a minute.... sorry, that was 9/12 my mistake. The only thing I agree with mikey moore on is when he said, in France I believe, "Americans are dumb". He was right! 60 some million Americans voted for obama. That means that now the dumb, the unproductive, and the uninformed outnumber the smart, the productive, and the informed. THAT is going to be very hard to overcome! The fact that they outnumber us doesn't mean much in war, but it means a hell of alot in politics!