lost in transmutation

spintree:

soupsoup:

randyhaddock:

• $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.

It’s hard to look at this list and not view it as a massive Democratic political payout to a number of special interest groups. It could be argued that some of these initiatives would be good for the country but now is not the time. Moreover, they have no place in a so-called stimulus package meant to get this economy back on track as quickly and efficiently as possible.

It’s a shame that Reid, Pelosi, Frank, and other Democratic leaders chose to take advantage of this bill to push their own partisan agenda. They are there to serve the people, not themselves and their Party. Maybe any other time but this is the worst time to play politics as usual.

The ones I bolded seem like good ideas that would save us money and create jobs. The rest I agree are wasteful and not needed at this time.

I’m with the GOP on the excess of pork in this stimulus and need Obama to explain what the purpose of some of these programs are.

Hmmm… maybe I’m a bleeding heart liberal, but I see a lot of great foundation building here. For example, Obama is a huge proponent of prevention-based health care. There’s money here for STD prevention, “smoking cessation activities,” and tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction. There’s also money for public transit and infrastructure rebuilding. None of these are essential to life right this instant, but most items on the list seem to be lying groundwork for initiatives to come, which doesn’t bother me.

Refurnishing departments though? Yeah, that’s pork.

Actually, I don’t think this is a simple case of refurnishing departments - I think it specifies furniture for the Department of Homeland Security that has not been built and which does not yet have furniture. We are talking about furniture-less DHS employees here.

To be serious, my understanding is that the new DHS would be built in Anacostia, an underdevelopment, high-crime area of DC. The aim is that such a massive federal investment in that section of the city would bring in development, stores, eateries and housing opportunities for employees hopefully injecting this part of the city with some much needed attention and opportunities.

So maybe I am a raging, bleeding heart liberal (and no, they don’t need the good furniture, just the furniture), but I think the blanket idea of investing in the development of low-income, high crime areas, whether they are in DC or not, is a good one. Especially when we are talking about it AFTER we gave the first check to Wall Street.

P.S. I don’t work at the DHS.