"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have"
Thomas Jefferson

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Here Is Your Pork Sandwich

Here is a list of non stimulating pork courtesy of Senator Tom Coburn. The stimulus package with interest will cost the US taxpayers well over $1 trillion dollars, with one piece of legislation the Democrats will increase the deficit by 10%.

And what does your Senator Schumer have to say about all these pork pet projects.
"And let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments, the American people really don't care," Schumer said on the Senate floor.

  • $2 billion earmark for FutureGen near zero emissions powerplant in Mattoon, IL
  • $39 billion slush fund for “state fiscal stabilization” bailout
  • $5.5 billion for making federal buildings “green” (including $448 million for DHS HQ)
  • $200 million for workplace safety in USDA facilities
  • $275 million for flood prevention
  • $65 million for watershed rehabilitation
  • $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
  • $650 million for the DTV transition coupon program
  • $307 million for constructing NIST office buildings
  • $1 billion for administrative costs and construction of NOAA office buildings
  • $100 million for constructing U.S. Marshalls office buildings
  • $300 million for constructing FBI office buildings
  • $800 million for constructing Federal Prison System buildings and facilities
  • $10 million to fight Mexican gunrunners
  • $1.3 billion for NASA (including $450 million for “science” at NASA)
  • $100 million to clean up sites used in early U.S. atomic energy program
  • $10 million for urban canals
  • $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars
  • $1.5 billion for carbon capture projects under sec. 703 of P.L. 110-140 (though section only authorizes $1 billion for five years)
  • $300 million for hybrid and electric cars for federal employees
  • $198 million to design and furnish the DHS headquarters
  • $255 million for “priority procurements” at Coast Guard (polar ice breaker)
  • $500 million for State and local fire stations
  • $180 million for construction of Bureau of Land Management facilities
  • $500 million for wildland fire management
  • $110 million for construction for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • $522 million for construction for the Bureau of Indian Affairs
  • $650 million for abandoned mine sites
  • $75 million for the Smithsonian Institution
  • $1.2 billion for summer jobs for youth
  • $412 million for CDC headquarters
  • $500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
  • $160 million for “volunteers” at the Corp. for National and Community Service
  • $750 earmark for the National Computer Center in MD
  • $224 million for International Boundary and Water Commission – U.S. and Mexico
  • $850 million for Amtrak
  • $100 million for lead paint hazard reduction

10 comments:

Editorial Staff said...

Yeah! We should just give the money straight to the banks like good Republicans do! That way they can keep their bonuses!

Oh.. wait... wasn't it the Republicans that's got us in to this mess?

Maybe listening to them would be a stupid move at this point?

Anonymous said...

Nifty break down iv.
Here's another spending statement, for you to break down. Republicans adventure in spreading (spending) Democracy.
As President Obama said those guys have zero creditability.

Anonymous said...

9:26 - Holy crap! According to your figures this boondogle pork bill is costing more than the 8 years of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars!!!
Your side thinks that war spending to keep our country safe justifies borrowing $1 trillion for spending on mush!!??
I want/need some of what you guys are smoking.

Danny M. Francis (Eyepublius) said...

So, none of these "projects" involve putting people to work?

And, of course, to be just as cynical as the next poster, "none of these projects help GOP folks... they just benefit DEMS?

Come on - the special projects - no matter what they are or from whom they got added - benefits those in office: positively or negatively, depending on which side of the aisle you vote on...

Change IS NOT a 4-letter word, but maybe it should be!!!

Anonymous said...

10:32 What ever I'm smoking is strictly for medicinal purposes only.

Re-guarding keeping America safe.

We are as safe today, as we were at 4:00 PM, Tuesday afternoon on September 11, 2001.

If spending billions on walkie talkies and surveillance cameras, for Deputy Barney in Mayberry, NC, while leaving the harbors and borders wide open is your idea of safety, I want some of your wife's brownies.

Anonymous said...

How can building projects occur without putting people to work?

How can a program for summer youth jobs not be a job creation program?

Are you trying to say that all of the money going to specific departments or outcomes will only be used to make copies? No one will be hired to do anything with those dollars?

Your logic is faulty and you should cull the list before you copy and paste it into your blog.

Anonymous said...

11:12 - And when this $1 trillion is spent, we will be just as bad off - and most likely a whole lot worse - than we were at 12:00 p.m., Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 20, 2009.
Keep smoking your medicine.

Anonymous said...

Uh, no John, it wasn't the elephants who got us into this, it was spending that got us into this. Both parties have learned to buy our votes with borrowed money. And people like you cling to partisanship to explain away the situation. Johnny, we are getting screwed by both sides. As long as people like you miss the point, politicians from both sides are happy.

Anonymous said...

The only problem with the infrastructure spending is there will likely be a only union worker claus.So the taxpayer should be aware the project is going to take twice as long and cost three times as much(at our expense)than if it were bid out to the private sector.But we will get used to this.Hey look at the bright side maybe we will get tony soprano as a boss.

Anonymous said...

The first Homeland Security Funding to come to Jefferson County a couple of years back, was spent to . . .


. . . buy 50 new desks and chairs for the County Public Health Service.

Yes: your "Keep America Safe" funding was used to buy bureaucrats in Watertown NEW DESKS.

Where was P IV's outrage over squandering Federal funds at that time? Did he not have a direct vote in how that money was used?

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