Obama Stimulus Package: Anti-Business, Pro-Welfare
Chicago’s Public Housing South Side
It is becoming ever more clear that the Obama stimulus package is anything but. A quick review reveals an anti-business, pro-welfare abomination designed to reward special interest groups and promote welfare. The ultimate result will be to prop up uncompetitive businesses and siphon huge sums into State bureaucracies, health care paperwork, environmentalist and academia coffers. Services that are already among the most ill-run in America, with virtually no accountability. The disbursements look like this:
Spending
· $32 billion to transform the nation’s energy transmission, distribution, and production systems by allowing for a smarter and better grid and focusing investment in renewable technology.
Expect to see no practical application of this money. Most will stay in Washington, some will drift into wind farm and solar projects that will be shot down by environmentalist NIMBY.
Grade: FAIL
· $16 billion to repair public housing and make key energy efficiency retrofits.
Because government housing has proven to be such a bargain.
Grade: FAIL
· $6 billion to weatherize modest-income homes.
Expect fraud on a Katrina level.
Grade: FAIL
· $10 billion for science facilities, research, and instrumentation.
Academic welfare. Global Warming redux.
Grade: FAIL
· $6 billion to expand broadband internet access so businesses in rural and other under served areas can link up to the global economy.
This hoax has already cost well over a billion dollars. In one instance, $100 million was paid to bring broadband to 44 homes that already had private service.
Grade: FAIL
· $30 billion for highway construction.
Bridges to nowhere. We need bridge and highway repair.
Grade: FAIL
· $31 billion to modernize federal and other public infrastructure with investments that lead to long term energy cost savings.
When a budget item is so meaninglessly described, you know that it is BS. This is bureaucracy and a slush fund for Obama. This is where he will be the Chicago Pol. Look at this budget for sign of corruption and payoffs.
Grade: FAIL
· $19 billion for clean water, flood control, and environmental restoration investments.
First, when an expense does not earn money, it is not an investment. It is an expense. These are expenses. Flood control is corporate welfare to the max. Environmental restoration is a worthwhile goal. To bad no one in Washington realizes that often the best method is to clear, plant, fence, and come back in 20 years. Putting dirt in drums merely preserves the toxins and can use up of this money in a single year. If the government were to restock fisheries and forests, that would be one thing. We could even accept sewer repair, maintenance, and secondary treatment. But this item smells.
Grade: FAIL
· $10 billion for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption.
We suspect this meant ‘gasoline’ consumption. Welfare to the states to prop up a service that cost a lot of money to go where you do not want to be. Nevertheless, if spent properly on hard assets, DBKP gives it a passing grade.
Grade: PASS
· $41 billion to local school districts through Title I ($13 billion), IDEA ($13 billion), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and the Education Technology program ($1 billion).
Right down the rat hole. Need we say more? Reward the teachers and the nut cases that run modern education.
Grade: FAIL
· $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key services, including $39 billion to local school districts, public colleges, and universities distributed through existing state and federal formulas. Fifteen billion to states as bonus grants as a reward for meeting key performance measures, and $25 billion to states for other high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education.
Same old crap. Since when is it our responsibility to fund school districts in other states plus hand out bonus rewards for actually doing your job. This does nothing for the economy, the stated purpose of this travesty.
Grade: Massive Failure
· $15.6 billion to increase the Pell grant by $500.
My favorite. Bloated institutions will merely raise their tuition. Simple solution, end tenure. This would lower the cost of education by billions.
Grade: FAIL
· $6 billion for higher education modernization.
More climbing towers, Muslim only gyms, anti- American/Jews/Capitalism/Free Speech Rallies? Bigger Bongs? Massage Chairs in the Entertainment Lounge? Caviar?
Grade: FAIL
· $20 billion for health information technology to prevent medical mistakes, provide better care to patients, and introduce cost-saving efficiencies.
Because government paperwork has proven to be such a cost saver to date?
Grade: FAIL
· $4.1 billion to provide for preventative care and to evaluate the most effective health care treatments.
First, understand what is being called for: A REDUCTION IN MEDICAL SERVICES DESCRIBED AS A POSITIVE. Once that is understood, understand that they are trying to screw you–but want you to pay for a study on how best to kill you off.
Grade: FAIL
· $43 billion for increased unemployment benefits and job training.
Increased welfare.
Grade: FAIL
· $39 billion to support those who lose their jobs by helping them to pay the cost of keeping their employer provided healthcare under COBRA and providing short-term options to be covered by Medicaid.
Another form of welfare.
Grade: FAIL
· $20 billion to increase the food stamp benefit by over 13% in order to help defray rising food costs.
Food stamp use has been going down for years. Rather than be happy, Liberals want to crow that it is going up. So they increase it 13% over the inflationary index. Wonderful.
Grade: FAIL
-Save Public Sector Jobs and Protect Vital Services: We will provide relief to states, so they can continue to employ teachers, firefighters, and police officers and provide vital services without having to unnecessarily raise middle class taxes.
Frankly, we need the States to dramatically reduce public sector jobs, particularly social workers, home heating specialists, and the myriad other jobs, including many teachers, that are simply redundant such as six men watching one fix a pipe, or two police officers paid overtime to direct traffic.
· $87 billion for a temporary increase in the Medicaid matching rate.
Another form of welfare.
Grade: FAIL
· $4 billion for state and local law enforcement funding.
State Welfare.
Grade: FAIL
Only one item “passed” on the criteria set forth in the Stimulus package bill. Otherwise, it is a bizarre and unnecessary spending package that will create a minuscule number of jobs and actually decrease productivity.
IT IS A FRICKIN DISASTER.
By pat
this is even more nauseating when you break it all down as you have. i think i am going to go barf now.
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pat Reply:
January 26th, 2009 at 01:17
It is pure corruption.
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You hit the nail on the head, it is payback to those that elected him.
Going back to his Change.gov site BEFORE it was purged of all the purposed changes, one can see this act fulfills many of those campaign promises he had made. Virtually everything in the act itself is a fulfillment of the social agenda; whether it is money going to modernizing low income housing, to increased childcare, to alternate energy funding to the little sensors warning of global warming.
As far as actually stimulating the economy? How? No money is going to actually get to any consumers to spread throughout the marketplace. No money is being used to create wealth to spread around and create more wealth. It needs to be called what it actually is; the redistribution of wealth Obama told us he would have to do. The redistribution of wealth, social engineering, and behavior modification of the nations citizens.
Good breakdown.
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pat Reply:
January 26th, 2009 at 03:04
That is correct. In economics many of these monies are characterized as “transfer payments”. They are neutral in spending, except for the fact they tend to spend “down”. Booze, soft goods, etc. instead of houses or ‘white goods’. But a great deal are simply anti-growth. For instance subsidizing teachers and policemen. No matter how worthy the goal, economically you are creating a welfare situation that creates nothing that was not already there. Except you are paying for it twice. Both at home and thru the Feds.
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Am i to understand the Democrats didn’t extend unemployment benefits during the toughest recession of many of our lifetimes?It must take Republicans to do that.
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Good breakdown of the “stimpack.”
However… Regarding the picture at the top… I haven’t visited this site that often (as I should… excellent posts every time I visit), so I’m not sure if it was meant to be humorous or not. Looking at the vehicles in the background (not to mention the clothing, and of course the lack of color in the photo), I’d say BO wasn’t a community organizer in Chicago when this photo was shot.
But, I can attest from personal experience that the south side really hasn’t improved since this photo was taken either. So, the point of illustrating the conditions of the south side is still relatively accurate. Just don’t be surprised if a moonbat looks at the above picture and spits out their Apple Jacks on their computer, saying “Nuh uh, hater!”, etc. Not like they won’t do that anyway…
J
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More jobs for overpaid union…
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Obama’s Stimulus Package, and His rhetoric of “Boosting” the economy, is nothing more than a smokesreen to implement programs that are foremost in the Dems minds. If truly caring to remove financial hardship from the American citizen, one would think that He would address major “Cashcows” like the Billions of Dollars in programs to assist Illegal Aliens. If you “Trim the Pork” from his Stimulus Package–you’d have a great amount to invest in the people!
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pat Reply:
January 31st, 2009 at 22:56
The pork in this package is $875B out of $885. And not a dime for nuclear energy. Obama is a nut case.
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[...] This is really an anti-stimulus package. Economic insanity, on the level of Hoover/Roosevelt. An item by item analysis, in summary: http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009/01/obama-stimulus-package-anti-business-pro-welfare/ [...]
Please listen to this person who has talked to the Democratic officials in Chicago talking about what they are going to do with the money and why they do not want to disclose how they plan to spend it.
The Dems are trying to use this stimulus money to create jobs that will make people vote Democratic forever if they want to keep their job. This Stimulus bill will take away the two party system and there will be no reversing it.
We need to demand that our representatives do not pass this or anything like it.
This is why Obama wanted to pass it so soon and so fast. He didn’t want people to figure this out. He hoped it would be too long for people to read and sort through. The real programs he has hidden will guarantee him voters in 2012.
This country will be doomed if there is only one party.
Obama wants to be remembered like Lincoln- maybe he is trying to start a Civil War.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGafMHsV4Ug&eurl=http://pub29.bravenet.com/forum/2442810129/show/976628&feature=player_embedded
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Word to the wise, kids: get out of dollar-denominated assets now. All your dollar-based stocks, 401Ks, IRAs, savings, checking are going to be come WORTHLESS in the near-term. No one can say exactly when this will happen, just that economically it MUST happen eventually.
This is NOT an Obama slam, and this situation is largely NOT his fault, but by signing the stimulus package he has demonstrated emphatically that he is in lock-step with the fiscal policies of every Republican & Democratic administration since the 60s. It’s irrelevant what they spend it on; the fundamental fact is that the policies of both parties is to spend borrowed money. We’re near the limit of our ability to borrow, and that’s when the house of cards called the U.S. economy comes down.
Protect yourselves NOW so you can continue to feed you babies & keep a roof over their heads. (all caps alert) GET OUT OF THE DOLLAR TODAY. It is toxic & soon to be worth little more than the paper you currently wipe your ass with.
You think gold & silver are too expensive today? You ain’t seen NOTHING yet. It’s a frigging bargain, baby. Sure, I wish I started buying metals in 2001, too, but I didn’t. Shame on me. I was asleep & not paying attention like the rest of America. But I’m awake now & see what’s coming. In truth, gold & silver are going nowhere: the dollar is just simply being debased & therefore losing its purchasing power: precious metals are a wealth preservation strategy, not an investment. There’s a difference.
Having said that, gold & silver are going to the moon. (Personally, I buy silver, because gold has such incredibly dense value that it’s difficult to make individual purchases with it. With silver, an ounce is worth about 15$, so you will be able to fill up your tank with a one-ounce coin, or buy clothes, groceries, medicine, etc.
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I think that the stimulus package have helped a lot in restoring the economy. right now we can see some improvements in the economy. right now we can see some improvements in the eco;*`
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