The Stimulus Package: The Devil’s In the Details

The stimulus package is so big and so daunting that it’s hard to get your head around whether it will ultimately do anyone any good. Republican senators have held the bill up in an attempt to remove wasteful unnecessary spending. My first thought was, Of course it’s wasteful unnecessary spending! It’s a pile of handout money for lord’s sake! But then I thought I’d take a look at the criteria for determining waste versus legitimate spending.

This list from CNN enumerates the items to which Republican senators object:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.
• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.
• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.
• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.
• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings.
• $500 million for state and local fire stations.
• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.
• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs.
• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.
• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.
• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.
• $850 million for Amtrak.
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.
• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations

Agreed, much of this could be considered straight pork, but some of these look like job-creating, necessary projects. Anything involving sewage or waste-removal for example, or improving transportation. But $10 million to inspect canals? $400 million to screen for STDs? Nah, not a good use of public funds. When it comes down to it, though I wish we had more, I am happy to see the two parties keeping each other in check.

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February 4, 2009 | Filed Under Perfect World 

Comments

3 Responses to “The Stimulus Package: The Devil’s In the Details”

  1. Winston Wood on February 27th, 2009 10:47 pm

    What I found appalling about the package was that there was no apparent oversight from the administration. I could understand a smallish sop to the Democratic party or leadership, but to leave the entire 700 Billion – the largest bill in the nation’s history – up to Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Congress(who’ve been previously shown to be quite lacking in intellectual prowess) was, I think, a true lack of leadership and of judgement on the part of the Obama administration.

  2. Bobbie Wood on February 28th, 2009 10:28 am

    Agreed. There are so many issues with the stimulus, oversight a major one. And $700 billion is only about a third or so of the money Congress will hand out (or already has handed out).

    Did you follow the story re: Fox News subpoenaing the Bush people using the Freedom of Information Act to attempt to follow the initial billions Paulson handed out? The request was denied and NO ONE knows whhat institutions received money or how much they received, or what they did with it!

    http://michellemalkin.com/2008/12/19/fox-biz-net-sues-paulson-over-bailout-secrecy/

  3. Merry Lake on March 4th, 2009 5:52 am

    Bobbie,

    Thank you for all the information that you give us on your blog. I love it!

    Love, Merry

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