Details of 825 billion stimulus package

The big vote in the House is coming on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 aka the Obama stimulus package aka New Deal 2 aka Rush sucks and Liberals rule. The details of the text, like of many bills is detailed, but can be found here. I just spent quite some time reading through the text of the bill and have outlined the major proposals here. I think it is important that Americans understand what our money is being spent on in the name of recovery. This is not a comprehensive list, as it will take many pages to outline the random pork projects.

The bill outlines the objectives and they are as followed, with my comments below:


(1) modernize the nation's infrastructure;
This will be a giant waste of money. There is nothing that can be done to significantly improve our industry such that it will stimulate economic recovery. This is similar to FDR's public work's projects and not only did they have the desired effect, but many suffered from corruption and waste offering much worse than their competition like the TVA.

(2) enhance America's energy independence;
Well this would be great if we were not in a recession. Oil right now is relatively speaking very cheap, what exactly is the incentive for our industries to switch to green energy? Even if we were to agree that dropping the oil dependency is a must for our security, shouldn't this be done when our companies are NOT in the red?

(3) expand educational opportunities;
This does nothing for our economy. Period.

(4) preserve and improve affordable health care;
This is a step towards universal health care and somehow under the guise of the recession a ton of money is going to be allocated to start the ball rolling on this process. Just like during the New Deal we will get government programs that will stay with us, our children and our grandchildren ie Social Security.

(5) provide tax relief;
This tax relief will mostly be for lower-income families, many of whom do not pay federal taxes. This is not tax relief, but free money given to people for spending purposes. Bush tried this already and it does not work. It is truly amazing to see another attempt at Keynesian economics when they have demonstrated their failure over and over.

(6) protect those in greatest need.
Um..? What the hell? Two words...WELFARE STATE.

Major spending in the name of recovery, directly from the Bill.

The following is a variety of home construction, restoration and loans for housing and urban development. Somehow the idea that if more people get Internet access, our economy will recover. They are ordered chronologically as they appear in the bill. My comments in italics.

22.1 Billion: Loans to section 502 borrowers, of which $4,018,000,000 shall be for direct loans, and of which $18,111,000,000 shall be for unsubsidized guaranteed loans.
5.8 Billion: Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, to be available from the rural community advancement program, as follows
2.8 Billion: Distance learning, telemedicine, and broadband program
600 Million: Accelerating satellite development and acquisition, acquiring climate sensors and climate modeling capacity, and establishing climate data records
400 Million: Habitat restoration and mitigation activities for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

4 Billion: State and local law enforcement assistance & community oriented policing services.
400 Million: Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction’

4.5 Billion: Facilities Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization programs of the Department of Defense (including minor construction and major maintenance and repair).

18.5 Billion: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
This is a balloon appropriation that will be branched out to various energy efficiency projects mandated by; Energy Policy and Conservation Act and Energy Policy Act of 2005.

7.7 Billion: Construction, repair, and alteration of Federal buildings for projects that will create the greatest impact on energy efficiency and conservation, 1 Billion of which will be used for border facilities and land ports of entry.
A massive expense on federal building projects, why is it that such a massive allocation goes toward government related goodies? In time of need and economic recession, do we really need to upgrade our federal buildings?

600 Million: Energy efficient federal motor vehicle fleet procurement
This is shocking, as this calls for the purchasing and upgrading of government vehicles. What an unbelievable waste of money.

426 Million: Small Business Administration business loans program account.
Wow, 426 million in loans to the people that provide jobs in this country! After spending more on government vehicles, this is especially humiliating.

2.1 Billion: Health Resources and Services
This allocates money to upgrading infrastructure, training of nurses and provide money to investigate and research methodologies.

700 Million: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 400 Million of which will be used for: Funding appropriated in this paragraph shall be used to accelerate the development and dissemination of research assessing the comparative effectiveness of health care treatments and strategies.
In other words, money will be spent to expedite and prepare foundations for universal health care.

8.4 Billion: State and Tribal Assistance Grants
This will be used to clean up water pollution. Thankfully, because all economists agree that dirty water is the number one cause of recessions.

4 Billion: Employment and Training Administration
Adult training and youth activities, including summer jobs for youth. So this money will be given to the state, so that they can provide jobs. In other words our government will be providing jobs and paying people with money that we do not actually have. This somehow spurs economic recovery?

2.1 Billion: Health Resources and Services
Primary function is for renovation and repair of health centers. *sigh*

1 Billion: Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
2 Billion: Payments to States for the Child Care and Development Block Grant
3.2 Billion: Children and families services programs
Because children are our future.

13 Billion: Education for the Disadvantaged
Staggering amount of money being spent here, instead of investing and considering school choice and vouchers this is where we are funneling billions of dollars.

3 Billion: Grants-in-aid for airports
The section mentioned projects as deemed worthy by Secretary of Transposition and leaves it at that.

30 Billion: Highway infrastructure investment
This is massive and includes the following; Indian reservation roads, park roads and parkways, highway surface transportation (whatever that is). Rest of the money appropriation is not spelled out. This section alone is enough to dub this New Deal II and is an extremely depressing allocation of taxpayer money.

6 Billion: Transit capital assistance.
In accordance with section 5307 of title 49. AKA Urban projects.

300 Million: capital assistance for intercity passenger rail service
If highways can get 30 billion, then rail services can get 300 million. Who cares that rail is more efficient?

5 Billion: Public housing capital fund.
I can ask how this helps economic recovery, but it's getting old and unoriginal.

2.5 Billion: Section 8 housing

5.1 Billion: Community development fund.
If this one will not have you fuming, nothing else will. 4.1 Billion of this will be used for neighborhood stabilization activities of which a major portion will be awarded to nonprofit entities! Do you know what nonprofit entities are in the business of community development?
No? ACORN! Yes, ACORN! The same organization that launched the largest wave of voter registration fraud during the democrat primaries and general elections is getting it's money back. Never mind that they are being investigated and prosecuted in multiple states. These organizations also clearly have a political agenda as they only register democrat voters and outright support democrat candidates. This stinks to high heaven.

1.5 Billion: HOME Investment Partnerships Program
More help to people who bought houses they could not afford, who signed mortgages they should not have and now are being rescued by OUR money.

79 Billion: State Fiscal Stabilization Fund
The most aggravating part of this, is that this is all under the power of Department of Education. The money is supposed to be used for administration and oversight (12.5 billion alone!!!), additional programs (whatever that means), state allocations and state grants.


This concludes all the major spending outlines of the bill. The big tax breaks that Obama was talking (welfare checks) are not outlined in the bill or I may have missed them. As you can see, virtually none of the proposed spending has much to do with economic recovery. Even if you were to give our gov't the benefit of the doubt and pretend that massive injection of funds into our highway system will eventually help our country - it is woefully unclear as to how this will happen, why should we be funding it or why the government is in charge of this. How much of this money will be lost to administration, corruption, waste and mismanagement is obviously the biggest question. Of course liberals do not care about such losses, as that is the cost of doing business.


Source: rkdpolitics.blogspot.com