Obama needs to let Nancy Pelosi know that he was elected President, not her dumb ass.
JMO.
JMO.
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have to call it like you see it, Obama stimulus package full of pork & payback
- Thread starter shamrock
- Start date
This could be a picture of the Jaberwocky.
JMO
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/117/252955424_0ba4f3ff96.jpg?
We haven't heard from this guy in a while--thought his take might be interesting to some.
January 30, 2009
Stimulus for Who?
By Ron Paul
This week the House passed an $819 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is d?j? vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There are many red flags that I have found in this bill.
At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.
To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal ?medical privacy? rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.
$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.
$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to ?faith-and-community? based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.
Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into ?green jobs?. $200 million to ?encourage? electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can?t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for ?research in potentially revolutionary technologies? in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.
This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.
There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill ? that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.
Ron Paul is a Republican United States Congressman from Texas and a former 2008 U.S. presidential candidate.
January 30, 2009
Stimulus for Who?
By Ron Paul
This week the House passed an $819 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is d?j? vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There are many red flags that I have found in this bill.
At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.
To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal ?medical privacy? rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.
$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.
$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to ?faith-and-community? based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.
Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into ?green jobs?. $200 million to ?encourage? electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can?t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for ?research in potentially revolutionary technologies? in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.
This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.
There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill ? that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.
Ron Paul is a Republican United States Congressman from Texas and a former 2008 U.S. presidential candidate.
Don't get me wrong - I have a problem with much of the package, specifics are the big thing to look at. I can understand the frustration at this - especially parts of it. I wanted to know if the Acorn thing was specific, and of course it wasn't, just like Sponge mentioned about "Hollywood." Open to, and groups like are not specifics, unlike posting something like $4 billion to Acorn. So, yes, I do think it matters - and I realize why conservatives want to blur the line.
I'm glad to see many of the projects being undertaken, but of course it's all too much. This gets down to the base problem, of most of our representatives grabbing for everything they can get their hands on. I suggest holding them responsible, and remembering it. And of course I'm more happy with money going to nearly all of these projects compared to going down the sinkhole that remains in Iraq. I'd much rather see people in our country benefit than in a fiasco-based elective scene.
Is there any kind of listing about what projects were brought forth by who anywhere? Not just the overall thing. THAT would be great to know. I know the Minnesota rep Oberstar was crowing in our state about the road and bridge projects that will be going on here. I'm sure there was more that our locals were a part of that I would not agree that needs to happen. I continue to be frustrated by our national debt, and I doubt that much of this will help that at all - and I railed on Bush for that - fair is fair. Obama needs to be more mindful of that responsibility.
I'm glad to see many of the projects being undertaken, but of course it's all too much. This gets down to the base problem, of most of our representatives grabbing for everything they can get their hands on. I suggest holding them responsible, and remembering it. And of course I'm more happy with money going to nearly all of these projects compared to going down the sinkhole that remains in Iraq. I'd much rather see people in our country benefit than in a fiasco-based elective scene.
Is there any kind of listing about what projects were brought forth by who anywhere? Not just the overall thing. THAT would be great to know. I know the Minnesota rep Oberstar was crowing in our state about the road and bridge projects that will be going on here. I'm sure there was more that our locals were a part of that I would not agree that needs to happen. I continue to be frustrated by our national debt, and I doubt that much of this will help that at all - and I railed on Bush for that - fair is fair. Obama needs to be more mindful of that responsibility.
