January 28, 2009
First test of honest Democrats - Any of you out there?

So here we are, on the verge of the largest spending bill in the history of the United States. A 647-page list of Democrat pet-projects and handouts that will add a $1.2 trillion directly to the national debt ($825 billion plus life-time interest payments on it) at a time when there will be no increases in revenue to pay of any of it.

It is being called a Stimulus Bill, focused on jump-starting our economy. It has been written by Democrat leaders and the Obama White House, with nothing but an opportunity for Republicans to sit in a room with the president and criticize its myriad of pork-laden social-engineering and hand-outs. Many of you voted for Obama because of hope and change. And while I know your desire for change and hope for improvement of the economy is genuine, I now ask that you consider what is in this bill, and if you conclude that this is not the appropriate use of money intended to stimulate the economy, that you will immediately call on the president, this agent of change away from the earmarks, pork, and wasteful spending of the past, to veto this disaster full of liberal social spending and engineering.

Here is a summary of some of what we know is in this "Stimulus" bill.

* $335 million to prevent Sexually Transmitted Desease
* $4.19 billion for vote fraud organizations like ACORN, the Dems private "turn out the Democrat vote" machine
* $1 billion for the failing Amtrak system that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years
* $2 billion for child-care subsidies
* $50 million for "job creation"??
* $400 million for the National Endowment of the Arts
* $400 million for Global Warming research (I thought this was settled?)
* $2.4 billion for technologies to capture Carbon from the environment
* $650 million for digital TV converter boxes
* $8 billion for renewable energy
* $20 billion in business tax cuts that will likely not be used
* $6 billion for more mass transit
* $600 million for the government to buy new cars
* $7 billion to modernize federal buildings
* $150 for the Smithsonian
* $83 billion to people who don't pay any income taxes - those 40% of taxpayers who pay no income tax
* $81 billion for Medicaid - covert expansion of government health care
* $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
* $20 billion for food stamps
* $54 billion to government programs that the GAO and Congressional Budget Office classify as "ineffective" or unable to pass financial audits
* $66 billion for education, but earmarked to prohibit its use on private elementary or secondary schools
* Just $30 billion for fixing bridges and other highway projects
* Just $40 billion for worthwhile projects, such as broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects


According to the Wall Street Journal, just $90 billion of the $825 billion bill can actually be considered as stimulus for the economy. But we all know now, don't we, that any stimulus is just coincidental to the real intend of this bill, which is to spend a grotesque amount of money on pet Democrat programs?

Consider this. With $825 billion, every taxpayer in America could get a check for $6,500 to spend however they wish. How would that stimulate the economy? With interest, this bill will cost every American family $10,520 according to the Heritage Foundation.

But seriously, are any of you Obama voters outraged at the "politics as usual" that has returned to pork-laden spending bills in DC? Does anyone believe this is a economic stimulus bill, or is it really a government growth stimulus bill? Shocked at the lie of change that isn't change at all? Will any of you hold Obama accountable when he fails to veto this bill once Democrats ram it through the House and Senate?

The House just passed this right down party lines, with virtually no review or debate on its myriad of Democrat social program spending, 244 - 188.

NOT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTED FOR THIS DEBACLE. Welcome to "change".

Posted by mjc3389 at January 28, 2009 03:38 PM | Email This
Comments
1. To be fair, a lot of people on SP don't make this place especially friendly for Democrats whether they be moderate or super liberal.

Posted by: Andrew Brown on January 29, 2009 10:44 AM
2. Andrew, does HA make iteslf especially friendly to republicans who visit? No, they hurl obscenity right and left and make kneejerk ad hominem attacks. Liberals will find themselves better treated here than conservatives will find themselves treated over at HA. And I think many here will back me up on that.

Posted by: Michele on January 30, 2009 01:44 AM
3. I will be "friendly" if Democrats will simply be honest. Who can be friendly to posters who lie, distort, or attempt to deceive?

Where is a Democrat that will defend this bill? Where is a Democrat that will hold Obama accountable if they disagree with this bill and he signs it?

Andrew, will you support Obama signing this bill with all this liberal-friendly pork that is not stimulus?

If you do, then you will be asked to defend your decision. Conservatives work to defend our principles all the time, but unsupported allegations and name-calling from the left does not promote a discussion. And when facts and evidence are presented and ignored, how can any discussion advance?

This list of expenditures above is fact. It is not rhetoric and unspecific vagaries of goodness and light from Obama. Can liberals and Democrats, besides Nancy Pelosi, stand up and take ownership of these items as necessary to repairing our economy?

And if they can't, will one Democrat, outside the 11 House Democrats that voted against it, stand up and call it what it is, and hold the president accountable if he signs this pork into law?

Posted by: mjc3389 on January 30, 2009 09:46 AM
4. Michele, of course many here will back you up on that, but it doesn't bear out for the most part from an objective viewpoint.

mjc, I don't support this stimulus bill at all. I am a libertarian Republican and both liberal and "conservative" support for bailouts/stimulus leave me dismayed.

Posted by: Andrew Brown on February 2, 2009 10:25 AM
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