The Ugly Facts About the Stimulus Package
Ed Morrissey’s post at HotAir exposes the Porkulus bill for what it really is:
A bill that should’ve gone through the regular committee process and a pork-soaked bill. Here’s Ed’s list of pork in the bill:
- $550 million for a federal fleet of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
- $300 million for even more plug-in or “efficient” vehicles
- $300 million for “smart appliances”
- $13.9 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Authority (a lending mechanism for green energy projects)
- $8 billion for “high-speed rail grants” to states, which apparently includes Reid’s Vegas project
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$21.44 billion for “environmental” issues, none of which appears to have job creation in mind, including:
Lead Paint Abatement ($100 million)
EPA State revolving funds ($6 billion)
USDA water loans and grants ($1.38 billion)
DOE environmental management ($6 billion) - $15 billion to “increase and protect affordable housing“
- $7.2 billion for expanding broadband coverage
- $15 billion for new Pell Grant funding
$44 billion for education block grants - $4.6 billion for “early childhood” programs
- $1.1 billion for “comparative effectiveness research”
My trusty calculator tells me that that’s more than $131 billion of spending. This pork-soaked bill should be rejected for this reason alone. That’s before we talk about the provision in this bill that gives the federal government sole discretion which medical procedures and/or tests will get done and which won’t.
I’m not usually alarmist but that’s giving too much authority to the government. I don’t want a distant bureaucrat deciding that bypass surgery can’t be cost-justified because it’s being performed on an 80 year old man. In fact, I want that decision to be between the patient and his doctor.
This porker of a bill is being passed because they’ve got the votes. It isn’t winning because it’s the right economic prescription.
Technorati Tags: Stimulus, Pork, Health Care, Pell Grants, President Obama, Environment, Economy
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog