After reading this article I felt compelled to share my thoughts. Some of what they complain about I agree with. Some of what they complain about makes me think they’re playing rubbish political games. One basic issue I have is if the spending is only going towards propping up current operations, I don’t think its the best use of money. I really think that if we’re spending this money, it should go towards getting tangible things that will benefit the country while giving people jobs. The country gets something while people make money that will spend, which will help bolster the economy.
Read it and tell me how foolish I am. My comments are in italics.
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film. - Agreed, this is total rediculous, crap, stupid pork spending.
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters. – If you saw what they work out of now, you’d understand.
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters. - Easy there tiger. What kinda furniture you getting?
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees. – Let’s see, the American auto industry is in the crapper, the federal fleet uses American automobiles, this will help reduce pollution through cleaner emissions. Sounds like a terrible idea to me.
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities. – I’m not getting the stimulus from this, but maybe I don’t follow.
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion. – Stimulus? Crap idea.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI. – As a civil servant (admitted bias alert) I have a serious issue with calling this waste. The American people want to be safe and have good roads and have clean water, but they don’t want to pay for it. Maybe doesn’t belong in a stimulus bill, but I’ll support it anyway.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River. – I think its pretty clear that we’re not exactly squared away with dealing with floods of the Mississippi River. If we’re building things this is exactly what we need, especially b/c it will save money in the long run.
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. – Huh?
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings. – See similar comment about buying hybrid cars. Plus, many of the federal buildings in DC are old and really crappy and need to be refurbished anyway. Make them greener in the process.
• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs. – Programs to get more people working even if for a short period of time, putting money in their hands, that they will in turn spend on consumer products, which is what poeple aren’t doing now. Terrible idea. Why would we do that?
• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service. – a volunteer is someone who is unpaid by definition. If they get paid, they’re not a volunteer.
• $850 million for Amtrak. – are we building or subsidizing. Building good, subsidizing bad.
• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies. – Nice try State
Just my thoughts.
