It’s official, President King Obama has taken his first steps towards ruining our country, seamlessly picking up where George W. Bush left off.
Last night his $825+ BILLION “Stimulus” bill was passed. NONE of the House Republicans voted for it (for once Ron Paul did not stand alone), and all but 11 Democrats voted for it (including Mary Jo Kilroy, new Representative for Ohio’s 15th District, who will NEVER AGAIN get my vote.)
Congressional Democrats had no problem rushing through a spending bill that they surely didn’t read (it’s 1,588 pages.) It seems all a President has to do now to get their agendas passed is claim that it’s an emergency (DO IT NOW, OR ELSE!!!) and threaten that “it’ll be worse if we do nothing.” Hmm, I think that’s the same line they used to justify rushing the TARP bailout plan through. And look how successful that’s been, aren’t we all much better off now?
So what’s in this bill that’s supposedly going to bring back jobs, fix our broken mortgages, and put more money in our wallets? Let’s examine some of the ridiculous things Mr. Obama has deemed urgently necessary:
- $1 Billion for Amtrak (the federal railroad that hasn’t made a profit in 40 years)
- $650 Million to pay for digital TV conversion coupons (on top of the billions already doled out)
- $600 Million for the federal government to buy new cars
- $150 Million for The Smithsonian
- $20 Million for new sod at the National Mall
- $4.5 Billion for Federal management/oversight of the funds (money needed to monitor the money)
- $2.1 Billion for Offices of Inspector General for management/oversight of funds (more money needed to monitor the money)
- $25 Million for salaries and expenses for the Government Accountability Office for oversight activities relating to this Act (money to pay the people using the money to monitor the money)
- $50 Million for watershed rehabilitation by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (is this an emergency?)
- $1 Billion for Periodic Censuses and Program by the Bureau of the Census (why does the census bureau need a stimulus, they’re already part of the budget?!)
- $350 Million for salaries and expenses for National Telecommunications and Information Administration (gotta pay the guys that tap our phones and read our emails.)
- $100 Million for NIST Scientific and Technical Research and Services (these are the guys who can’t recognize a controlled demolition when it’s right in their face)
- $100 Million for NIST Industrial Technology Services (more for them)
- $300 Million for construction of NIST research facilities (still more?? Again, is this really an emergency?)
- $400 Million for habitat restoration and mitigation activities by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (emergency?)
- $600 Million for accelerating satellite development and acquisition, acquiring climate sensors and climate modeling capacity and establishing climate data records by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (emergency? jobs?)
- $400 Million for science by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (emergency funding for NASA?)
- $50 Million for cross-agency support by NASA ($50 million for other agencies to talk to NASA? Haven’t they heard of e-mail?)
- $2.5 Billion for research and related activities by the National Science Foundation (emergency? jobs?)
- $100 Million for education and human resources for the National Science Foundation (emergency? jobs?)
- $400 Million for major research equipment and facilities construction by the National Science Foundation (wow, they really made out nicely!)
- $4.5 Billion for improvement, repair and modernization of Department of Defense facilities, restore and modernize Army barracks and invest in the energy efficiency of DOD facilities (apparently over half the federal budget isn’t enough for these guys.)
- $350 Million for DOD energy research and development (they need a lot of money to research how to kill people.)
- $2.4 Billion to demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration technologies by the Department of Energy (that much just to “demonstrate” a technology? How many jobs is this going to create, really?)
- $500 Million for Defense Environmental Cleanup (stop dropping depleted uranium and you won’t need this.)
- $200 Million for FEMA emergency food and shelter programs (yay, more FEMA prison camps!)
- $500 Million for Bureau of Indian Affairs construction (is this an emergency?)
- $800 Million for EPA Hazardous Substance Superfund Remedial program (is this an emergency?)
- $200 Million for EPA Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund Program (I wish this were a joke.)
- $550 Million for Indian Health Service facilities (is this an emergency?)
- $3 Billion to establish a Prevention and Wellness Fund (the Era of Personal Responsibility means having the government tell you how to be healthy, and we need yet another federal agency to do this.)
- $6.0 Billion for DOD Military Construction (MORE for the military?)
- $500 Million for Native American Housing Block Grants (emergency?)
- …and the list goes on, I hope by now you get the picture.
Allow me to remind you: it’s NOT the federal government’s job to make sure you have digital TV service, museums, and trains. If you can find this clause in the Constitution, I’ll give you $100. It’s obvious that 98% of these items don’t have anything to do with emergencies or job-creation, they’re just going to expand an already overweight federal government and feed its bureaucracy.
What Obama hasn’t told you is that this bill has added an additional $6,700 of debt for every man, woman, and child in this country. Do you really want new sod that badly? What about your kids, how do you feel about enslaving them without their permission? It’s been said the tax cuts in this bill will put an extra $12 a week in the wallet of every American. Which number is bigger: 12 or 6,700? At $12/week it would take 10+ years to get that $6,700 back, and you can bet it will be worth WAY less than it is now thanks to inflation.
Needless to say, I’m beyond angry at this point, our political “representatives” (along with the American people) are RUINING this country with their apathy and lack of education on basic economics. Piece by piece we are building our own graves, and people are actually applauding it. The basics are simple to understand, and yet Americans still can’t grasp how it works. We are $10+ TRILLION in debt (counting unfunded obligations, that number is $50+ trillion), so Obama proposes tax cuts and spending INCREASES? He never once considered spending LESS on our military budget, pre-emptive wars, and empire-building, of course. I suppose once you get above $10+ trillion, the number is incomprehensible anyway, who cares how much higher it goes, right? (Unless you’re aware of what happens when you expand the money supply by trillions of dollars.) Americans see nothing wrong with this. We can spend, spend, spend, it’s all okay!
No, it’s NOT okay. Let me try making an analogy using these same principles, free from political terms that confuse and turn off most Americans:
Joe the Plumber is $500,000 in debt. He ran up his credit cards buying a bunch of things he didn’t need, lives in a house that he can’t afford, and financially supports a family in another neighborhood that constantly tries to attack the people next door to them. He’s lived this way for years and years but suddenly now he’s FREAKING OUT because he can’t make his monthly payments so the credit card companies are getting very angry, threatening to take away all of his assets, and the power company is threatening to turn off his electricity. He had to fire his pool boy, the dog’s private yoga instructor, and his private chef. Times are tough.
Joe comes up with a plan to fix this problem: he’s going to take a pay-cut at work and spend $100,000 using another credit card. He uses that $100,000 to buy a fancy new BBQ grill, some new trees for his yard, a new car, presents for the family in the other neighborhood, and other non-essential amenities. Joe the Plumber is now making less money each month, and is another $100,000 in debt. Do you think his plan will work? Will Joe wake up next week and suddenly be debt-free, with his pool boy and Spot’s yoga trainer back on the job?
If you support Obama’s plan, I have 3 assignments for you:
- Find where in the Constitution it says the federal government is allowed to use tax-payer money for these things.
- Read the Stimulus Bill for yourself. All 1,588 pages.
- Report back to me in a few months and tell me how many jobs have been created and how much better off we are thanks to this emergency pillaging.
- EXTRA CREDIT #1: Research how FDR’s New Deal programs actually prolonged the Great Depression.
- EXTRA CREDIT #2: Research the Weimar Republic and how hyperinflation affected them.
The kicker of this whole thing is that Obama has said over and over again that it’s time for an Era of Personal Responsibility. This means NOT RELYING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU.
If you really want to follow the King’s advice, quit begging for help from the government and then crying even louder when they make it worse. Quit asking for more debt. Quit asking for less control over your life. Try some COMMON SENSE, America.
It’s not a failure until it comes true, chicken little.
“Find where in the Constitution it says the federal government is allowed to use tax-payer money for these things.”
The constitution is a very, _very_ vague document. It essentially says congress can do anything they want, so long as it is not expressly prohibited. Article I, Section 8:
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; ”
So tell me this: How are all these things not providing for the general welfare of the United States?
As for creating jobs – Yes, this money could probably be spent better. But nobody really knows that. Nobody knows what brings the economy up and what sends it down. The best thing we can do is try to help people _now_, because we have no idea what will make the future better. And that’s what he’s doing. And that’s what the New Deal did. Besides, there were a lot of programs from the New Deal that are still alive today. It wasn’t all just creating jobs for people. But hell, even those, the work they did is still there. We’re still benefiting from it. I’d call that a good thing.
It is coming true as we speak, Connie Contrary.
The Constitution is a vague document? Nobody knows what brings the economy up and down? Are you serious?? I don’t even know where to begin.
The General Welfare clause is not justification for endless spending in the name of “well-being” — the Founding Fathers NEVER wanted any of this. They would be ashamed of what Congress and the Presidency has become.
You think nobody knows how to spend the money better, so it’s okay to blow it all this way? And you’re just fine with that situation? You really don’t care about your country or your tax money do you? Mind sending me a few thousand dollars since it doesn’t mean anything to you anyway?
Please read the bill. Tell me SPECIFICALLY how expanding all these bloated gov’t. programs is going to create jobs.
New Deal programs still being alive today is frightening. That statement alone is proof that the provisions made in this bill are not going to be one-time things, they’re going to be built into future budgets, meaning MORE spending, more dependency.
Please, please just read the freakin’ bill. And the Constitution while you’re at it.
I hope to god I turn out to be Chicken Little, for the sake of this country. But I really don’t see how that is possible, unless the Senate shoots this down next week (HA!) Come back in 3 months and tell me how prosperous we’ve become, how strong the dollar is, how many mortgages have been rescued, and how high the Dow has gone, and I’ll admit I was wrong.
I’ve read the Constitution several times. And the Bill of Rights, the federalist papers, the anti-federalist papers, etc. I know what it says. And it’s vague for a very, very good reason – if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t still be around. The government is a fluid thing, it needs the power to react to current situations. And hell, the Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution, but nobody seems to have been remembering much about that little document lately…But then, as I said, the government is fluid. It has to be. And if we don’t like what it’s doing, we need to do something about it. We can’t rely on some 250 year old piece of paper to save us. Because they sure as hell aren’t going to care what it says. That much should be obvious to anyone who pays attention. But yes, the general welfare clause is in there specifically so they have the freedom to do what they deem necessary, without people bitching that it’s unconstitutional. If you wanna say it’s a bad idea, fine, but it’s not unconstitutional. When it comes down to it, the Constitution isn’t much of anything.
And no, I think there are plenty of better ways to spend the money. But then, I’m not an economist. But then again, there are plenty of economists who will tell you that they can’t really be sure of anything either, they can essentially just make educated guesses.
As for the New Deal…off the top of my head, I’m sure as _hell_ glad that the Wagner Act went through. And the PWA and similar projects, while they may not have been the best way to go about things, certainly benefited our nation. Yes, not every project was a success. And yes, it didn’t quite provide the economic boost planned. But it did a hell of a lot to build up our nation’s infrastructure. I think we need something like that today. Build some nuclear power plants, run some fiber cables, upgrade the power grid…get some better mass transit maybe. Besides, what do you think he should have done? Let people starve in the streets? I’m not a huge fan of a government that takes my money than tells me I’m on my own when I need help.
“…the Constitution isn’t much of anything.”?!
Well then you may as well give up your citizenship and move out of the country. This country is nothing without it. Your rights are non-existent, you have no Bill of Rights without the Constitution. There is no President, there is no Congress, there is no We The People, there is nothing.
I have plenty of ideas on what should have been done, but more importantly so do the 200+ economists that have spoken out against this bill (see Cato.org). What would I do? I’d start with STOP BUILDING OUR EMPIRE OVERSEAS. Get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, quit killing people over THERE so people could live HERE — voila, there’s our money.
Obama should follow Congressman Paul’s plan to cut spending back to 2001 levels (it’s obviously possible, we just did it 8 years ago) and repeal the Federal Income Tax for EVERY American. With all that extra money to spend each week, our economy would take off. No 1,600 page bill needed, no new gov’t. agencies needed, it would have a DIRECT and IMMEDIATE effect on the people.
Oh, I completely agree we need to pull out of Iraq. There was no reason to be there in the first place. But personally, I think we should just put the money to better use. Double education spending. Triple energy spending. Double science spending. And add 50% to our health budget. Or maybe a bit less…balancing the budget would be nice.
And if you think your rights are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and there’s nothing more you need to do, you are very, very mistaken. The Bill of Rights on it’s own does nothing. The only thing that can prevent our rights from being taken away is _us_. And we haven’t been doing a very good job lately. If our Bill of Rights guaranteed anything, we wouldn’t have Guantanamo. We wouldn’t have the NSA wiretaps. We wouldn’t have people (government officials even) get arrested for publicly reading _the Declaration of Independence_ (that last one happened years ago, but the point remains). You can’t expect the government to just give you your rights because they’re supposed to. You have to _take_ your rights.
this bill was total pork,almost no stimulus at all.again the government and media pull the wool over americas eyes.to begin with im wondering where this economic crisis is?have we become so weak as a people that a naturally occurring slump in the economy has us in such a panic?lets think about this for a moment.how many of us are standing in line for ration tickets?how many of us are living out of our cars?the numbers of people in “crisis”are not that great;or much greater than were in crisis two years ago before our troubles began.the cure for this crisis is simple.people need to tighten their belts and start to rely more on family and friends for support.do you still have a cell phone?cable television?eating more than two-thousand calories a day?if yes you are just fine,quit whining.to those truly in need,where are your family and friends?why beg the government for help?i did some math.my immediate family has six members;mother,father,two sisters,a brother,and myself.as a group we spend close to three thousand dollars a month on housing.my parents and sister each have six bedroom houses;as a famiy we could save two thousand a month or more by all living under one roof.is the world/economy were in such dire straights we would have to.so i say to those in need,are you truly without hope?how have you become so alienated from your friends and family that as a group you cant pool resources and survive this temporary economic slump?are you so addicted to a large living space you cant live with members of your own family?americans have become weak and addicted to affluence.its time to grow up and tough this out.this too shall pass
Way to whine a lot and not suggest any solutions. Baby.