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Monday, February 9, 2009

What Else is in the Porkulus Spending Bill that you don't know about?

Obama is in one heckuva a hurry to pass the gargantuan trillion dollar spending bill that has more earmarks and special interest pork barrel projects ever assembled in one place. But what else is in that big fat, mega-pages-of-print bill? God only knows, but a few things have been uncovered that should give folks pause.

Stimulus to ban religious worship "'This isn't like a convenient oversight. This is intentional. This legislation pokes its finger in the eyes of people who hold religious beliefs,' Jay Sekulow, chief of the American Center for Law and Justice, told WND today."

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan Say hello to health care rationing, especially for the elderly. Betsy McCaughey writes that, "One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective." The plan effectively tells the elderly to get lost. McCaughey writes, "Daschle says health-care reform 'will not be pain free.' Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt....Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost-effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464)." So the federal government will be making decisions about whether your hip replacement, back surgery, or cancer treatment is worth it. No treatment for older Americans (unless you happen to be Ted Kennedy - there will always be some more equal than others). Whatever happened to a decision between a patient and his/her doctor?

50 De-Stimulating Facts: Chapter and verse on a bad bill.
Seems like the primary "stimulus" of this bill is to grow government. Here's a sample:
$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
There's also plenty for state government.

I vote for the pundit who said give $100,000 to every family in America and let them use it to stimulate the economy. Why should federal and state governments get all the fun?

200 Top Economists Say "Stimulus" Bill Won't Work
And it will raise taxes and likey udermine the already shaky dollar. If you think things are bad now, let Obama and his "czars" double and even triple the national debt in his first few months of office. This is the "change" and "hope" people are looking for?

7 comments:

  1. You do realize that the Bush tax cuts alone in 2001 were 1.4 trillion? What did you think was going to happen?

    Like Regan, there was no stimulus from the tax cuts but government burrowing that made the "fundamentals of the economy".

    When Rome built their empire, it was based on gold. The republicans have built their empire on debt.

    This economy is going down and the only thing the Obama administration can do is slow the speed of the crashing elevator so that when it hits the basement, a few will be left alive to start over.

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  2. Why do you presume tax cuts undermine the economy? The Reagan tax cuts gave us an economic boom. Tax cuts didn't cause the collapse of the housing industry. That was due to the policies put in place by democrats of making bad loans that people couldn't repay. And then there is the greed and dishonesty - reflected in politicians who don't pay their taxes. The war in Iraq, which I opposed, is also a financial disaster for the country. Tax cuts stimulate both personal and business spending. Tax increases, particularly on businesses, send more jobs overseas, reduce investment, and leave less money to spend in the pockets of individual taxpayers.

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  3. **That was due to the policies put in place by democrats of making bad loans that people couldn't repay.**

    Now, there's a verifiable fact. If only the Democrats would own up to their mistakes...oh well, one can hope...

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  4. Bush had a budget surplus when he took office in 2001. He spent, spent, spent. Republicans complain about taxes, cheat on taxes, give tax cuts to wealthy and then want a bail out. Barack Obama is a welcome relief in our time of need.

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  5. "Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan"

    "The Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore and Fox News anchors Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly promoted the falsehood -- which first appeared in a Bloomberg "commentary" by Betsy McCaughey and was subsequently promoted by Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge -- that the economic recovery bill includes a provision that would, in Moore's words, "hav[e] the government essentially dictate treatments." Limbaugh later took credit for spreading this story."

    http://mediamatters.org/items/200902100031?f=s_search

    I think you listen to your priest Rush Limbaugh too much.

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  6. "Why do you presume tax cuts undermine the economy?" The Reagan tax cuts did not give us an economic boom. The borrowing by Regan and Bush during good times provided the appearance of a boom.

    "That was due to the policies put in place by democrats of making bad loans that people couldn't repay." "I have warned my investor clients for more than a year that this was coming. If builders, banks and real estate agents acted responsibly we would not be in this situation. Many agents blast me for being so negative and “single handedly bringing down the market.” Mike Morgan said this back in 2006 so he was warning the bank, builders and others since early 2005. But greed took over.

    My favorite Economist blogger Mish has a list of those with bad behavior.

    "Borrowers
    Lenders
    Appraisers
    Risk Specialists
    Rating Agencies
    Guarantors
    Homebuilders
    Realtors
    Underwriters
    Banks
    Broker Dealers
    Ownership Society Proponents - Dems
    HUD
    Fannie Mae
    Freddie Mac
    Economic Cheerleaders - Repubs
    Congress

    Somehow that list looks incomplete. Oh yeah, I remember. Please put the Fed and central bankers in general at the top of the list."

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  7. Martina: You have a very short memory.
    1. Republicans have controlled congress since 1995. It was only in January 2007 that the democrats took control of congress. This crisis started after republican control and burst before democrat control.

    2. In 2002 Bush pushed for minority homeownership of 5.5 million. He also gave 2.4 billion in tax credits for new and rehabs.
    http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jun/18/business/fi-homes18.

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