Are You Ready To Be Stimulated?
February 6, 2009 · carl · Print This Article
Barack Obama’s “Economic Stimulus” bill is now in the hands of the Senate, after not receiving one vote in favor from Republicans as it was voted on in the House.
Like millions of other American’s, I was hoping that this bill might actually contain programs and provisions that may help pull our country out of our current economic crisis. But when I learned that it received no support from Republicans in the House of Representatives, I thought I’d better take a look at what made it so unpopular.
And I’m just going to hit the high points:
One billion dollars for Amtrak. How in the hell does giving a billion dollars to a rail service that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years (according to the WSJ) help boost the economy?
Two billion dollars for childcare (read daycare) subsidies. Why do we need to spend two billion dollars on someone to watch the kids when mom and dad don’t have jobs to go to in the first place?
Six hundred and fifty million dollars for coupons for people to buy converter boxes for the switch to digital TV. , Well, maybe the idea behind this is that people will be able to buy things from infomercials. Of course if you are sitting home watching TV you probably don’t have any money to buy anything anyway.
Two point four billion on projects to showcase “carbon capture.” Someone on the left please explain to me how that will help pull our country out of a recession?
I could go on and on with this, but I saved the best for last.
Fifty million dollars for the National Endowment of the Arts.
Yeah, there’s a real economy booster.
Now fifty million dollars may sound like small change when you are talking about a pork-laden bill that is over 900 BILLION dollars. Just remember one thing. The money for all this nonsense has to come from somewhere.
It seems like the more things “CHANGE”, the more they stay the same.
Is that pork that I smell?
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