The stimulus bill  President Obama and nearly all Democrat Senators and all Democrat Representatives want [...]]]>

The stimulus bill  President Obama and nearly all Democrat Senators and all Democrat Representatives want to ram down our throats has other names, more appropriate names.  Rush Limbaugh has called it the Porkulus Bill, referring to it’s massive amount of earmarks.  Senator Tom Coburn has another name for it, The Generational Theft Act.

Senator Coburn, a family practice physician from Oklahoma lays out what is in the bill that has started such an intense fight on Capital Hill.  Here is part of his floor statement:

We are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought to be standing on the principles that made this country great. There ought to be a review of every program in the Federal Government that is not effective, that is not efficient, that is wasteful or fraudulent, and we ought to get rid of it right now. We ought to say, Gone, to be able to pay for a real stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some impact.

I would be remiss if I didn’t remind everybody that next week we are going to hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500 billion. Outside of this, they are going to want another $500 billion to handle the banking system. Still not fixing the real disease–the pneumonia–we are going to treat the fever or treat the cough, but we are not going to treat the real disease. Until we treat the real disease, this is pure waste. It is worse than pure waste. It is morally reprehensible, because it steals the future of the next two generations.

I am going to wind up here and finish, but I wanted to spend some time to make sure the American people know what is in this bill. I think once they know what is in this bill, they are going to reject it out of hand. Let me read for my colleagues some of the things that are in this bill. The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2 billion in this bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be great, maybe, if we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the world sitting at MIT say we don’t have the technology yet to do that. Why would we build a $2 billion powerplant we don’t have the technology for that we know will come back and ask for another $2 billion and another $2 billion and another $2 billion when we could build a demonstration project that might cost $150 million or $200 million? There is nothing wrong with having coal-fired plants that don’t produce pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington Post said the technology isn’t there. It is a boondoggle. Why would we do that?

We eliminated tonight a $246 million payback for the large movie studios in Hollywood.

We are going to spend $88 million to study whether we ought to buy a new ice breaker for the Coast Guard. You know what. The Coast Guard needs a new ice breaker. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They have two ice breakers now that they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent to what they needed to and not spend the $1 billion they are going to come back and ask for, for another ice breaker, so why would we spend $88 million doing that?

We are going to spend $448 million to build the Department of Homeland Security a new building. We have $1.3 trillion worth of empty buildings right now, and because it has been blocked in Congress we can’t sell them, we can’t raze them, we can’t do anything, but we are going to spend money on a new building here in Washington. We are going to spend another $248 million for new furniture for that building; a quarter of a billion dollars for new furniture. What about the furniture the Department of Homeland Security has now? These are tough times. Should we be buying new furniture? How about using what we have? That is what a family would do. They would use what they have. They wouldn’t go out and spend $248 million on furniture.

How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do you know what I would say? Right now times are tough; I would rather Americans have new cars than Federal employees have new cars. What is wrong with the cars we have? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used vehicle market right now is one of the worst things we could do. Instead, we are going to spend $600 million buying new cars for Federal employees.

There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs. I have a lot of experience on that. I have delivered 4,000 babies. We don’t need to spend $400 million on STDs. What we need to do is properly educate about the infection rates and the effectiveness of methods of prevention. That doesn’t take a penny more. You can write that on one piece of paper and teach every kid in this country, but we don’t need to spend $400 million on it. It is not a priority.

How about $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs? That might even be somewhat stimulative. New sewers. That might create jobs.

How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell me how that helps get us out of a recession. Tell me how that is a priority. Would the average American think that is a priority that we ought to be mortgaging our kids’ future to spend another $150 million at the Smithsonian?

How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody knows, the census is so poorly managed that the census this year is going to cost twice–in 2010 is going to cost twice what it cost 10 years ago, and we wasted $800 million on a contract because it was no-bid that didn’t perform. Nobody got fired, no competitive bidding, and we blew $800 million.
We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities, which probably is a great idea, but we just passed a bill–the SCHIP bill–that we need to get 21 million more Americans smoking to be able to pay for that bill. That doesn’t make sense.

How about $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges? Since when is a community college in my State a recipient of Federal largesse? Is that our responsibility? I mean, did we talk with Dell and Hewlett-Packard and say, How do we make you all do better? Is there not a market force that could make that better? Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid? No, because there is nothing that requires competitive bidding in anything in this bill. There is nothing that requires it. It is one of the things President Obama said he was going to mandate at the Federal Government, but there is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.

We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. Well, that will put 10 or 15 people to work. Is that a priority for us right now?

There is $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into green buildings. That is a priority, versus somebody getting a job outside of Washington, a job that actually produces something, that actually increases wealth?

How about $500 million for State and local fire stations? Where do you find in the Constitution us paying for local fire stations within our realm of prerogatives? None of it is competitively bid–not a grant program.

Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does that employ? What does that mean?

How about $88 million for renovating the public health service building? You know, if we could sell half of the $1.3 trillion worth of properties we have, we could take care of every Federal building requirement and backlog we have.

Then there’s $412 million for CDC buildings and property. We spent billions on a new center and headquarters for CDC. Is that a priority? Building another Government building instead of–if we are going to spend $412 million on building buildings, let’s build one that will produce something, one that will give us something.

How about $850 million for that most “efficient” Amtrak that hasn’t made any money since 1976 and continues to have $2 billion or $3 billion a year in subsidies?
Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct a new “security training” facility for State Department security officers, and we have four other facilities already available to train them. But it is not theirs. They want theirs. By the way, it is going to be in West Virginia. I wonder how that got there. So we are going to build a new training facility that duplicates four others that we already have that could easily do what we need to do. But because we have a stimulus package, we are going to add in oink pork.

How about $200 million in funding for a lease–not buying, but a lease of alternative energy vehicles on military installations? We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total all of the health programs in this, and we are going to transfer $150 billion out of the private sector and we are going to move it to the Federal Government. You talk about backdooring national health care. Henry Waxman has to be smiling big today. He wants a single-payer Government-run health care system. We are going to move another $150 billion to the Federal Government from the private sector.

We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small Business Administration. You know what that does? That pushes productive capital to unproductive projects. It is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Then there is $160 million to the Job Corps Program–but not for jobs and not to put more people in the Job Corps but to construct or repair buildings.
We are going to spend $524 million for information technology upgrades that the Appropriations Committee claims will create 388 jobs. If you do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job. Don’t you love the efficiency of Washington thinking?

We are going to create $79 billion in additional money for the States, a “slush fund,” to bail out States and provide millions of dollars for education costs. How many of you think that will ever go away? Once the State education programs get $79 billion over 2 years, do you think that will ever go away? The cry and hue of taking our money away–even though it was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it will never go away. So we will continue putting that forward until our kids have grandkids of their own.

There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy programs that are primarily focused on renewable energy. I am fine with spending that. But we ought to get something for it. There ought to be metrics. There are no metrics. It is pie in the sky, saying we will throw some money at it. Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment in our country. We will either start living within the confines of realism and responsibility or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of the greatest Nation that ever lived. This bill is the start of that downfall. To abandon a market-oriented society and transfer it to a Soviet-style, government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated program, that is the thing that will put the stake in the heart of freedom in this country.

I hope the American people know what is in this bill. I am doing everything I can to make sure they know. But more important, I hope somebody is listening who will treat the “pneumonia” we are faced with today, which is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn’t matter how much money we spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure unless we fix that problem first. Failing that, we will go down in history as the Congress that undermined the future and vitality of this country. Let it not be so.

Now that you know what is in the plan, you may understand the fight.  I sent an email to my congressman, Bart Stupak when the stimulus still contained funding for contraception and family planning services.  Here is that email:

Dear Representative Stupak,

I would like to know if you share the assertion held by Speaker Pelosi that chlildren are a burden on the State’s budget.

She had this exchange on This Week with Stephanopoulus on ABC Sunday January 25th,

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?
PELOSI (D): Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?
PELOSI (D): No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

Is this the official platform of the Democrat Party?

Awaiting your reply,

Three days later, Congressman Stupak sent me his reply, note the bolded text.  It is absolutely not the truth.  Either Stupak doesn’t know what’s in the bill, and is towing the Democrat line, or he is lying.  I also added some comments shown in italics.

Thank you writing me regarding H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I appreciated hearing from you.

While I have reservations about the legislation and its impact on our national debt, it is important that Congress take action to revitalize our economy and help the millions of Americans who are struggling to pay for basic necessities such as food, housing, and health care.  People, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, their homes, and their healthcare.  Unemployment ranges from 7.2 percent in Menominee County to 19 percent in Mackinac County. Michigan has a 10.6 unemployment rate which is the highest in the nation.  In addition, Northern Michigan timber, mining, and manufacturing industries have been hit hard by the economic crisis leaving few options outside of federal action to jump start the economy.

On January 28, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 244 to 188 on H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  I voted for this legislation because it invests in America and our middle class at a time when unemployment is at a 30 year high.  The legislation provides strict rules in how the targeted funding will be spent and includes a number of reporting requirements to ensure Congress maintains proper oversight and accountability.  A majority of the funding provided under the recovery package must be obligated within the coming months and cannot be diverted to unrelated programs.  The House version provides $819 billion in funding for building roads, bridges, and water infrastructure, extending unemployment benefits, increasing food stamps, expanding broadband access, making education more affordable, modernizing our energy infrastructure, and maintaining healthcare coverage for Americans who have lost their job.

Unlike the Wall Street Bailout Bill, which I voted against twice because it did not sufficiently protect the taxpayer and address the needs of our economy, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act targets its investments in our country and for working families.  The bill now awaits Senate consideration.

This legislation that the U.S. House of Representatives passed did not contain any funding to provide family planning services (aside- which the conservative Republicans if this country including yours truly screamed about and forced the Democrats to get rid of) and did not spend $200 million to fix the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (again, because of Republican pressure) There are no earmarks within the recovery package and there is no direct funding (note the term’ direct’ is used because it goes to ACORN indirectly by providing the funding so that ACORN can apply for it) provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).  To improve transparency and accountability of how taxpayer money will be spent, all announcements of contracts, grants, awards, as well as the names of the program managers who will distribute funds, will be hosted on a special website created by the Obama Administration.

The recovery package will make long-term investments into our national infrastructure, which has been neglected for too long and will create a projected 1.5 million American jobs.  A total of $71 billion will be spent on rebuilding our highways, roads, bridges, and modernizing our public buildings.  An additional $22.4 billion in tax credit bonds are included to rehabilitate, repair, and modernize our nation’s schools.  Approximately $80 billion in loan guarantees are included for the construction of renewable energy and electric transmission projects to modernize our energy grid (does this include the 2 billion for the impossible zero emissions coal plant?).  The bill also includes more than $3.5 billion for expanding broadband services in rural America.  By improving our telecommunications infrastructure, businesses in rural areas such as Northern Michigan can effectively compete in an increasingly globalized market place.

There will also be a significant investment into our nation’s water resources and infrastructure.  The package will provide $4.25 billion for rebuilding and maintaining our nation’s ports and waterways.  The Great Lakes waterborne economy is dependent on this federal maintenance of our navigational infrastructure.  More than $8 billion in funding is included for the State Revolving Fund which will help communities upgrade their wastewater treatment systems and drinking water infrastructure.  A number of these systems in Northern Michigan are several decades old and are in desperate need to be replaced. (this is typically done by states and municipalities, not the federal government I believe)

H.R. 1 invests in health care for working families by providing funding to state governments to help unemployed workers maintain their health insurance coverage for up to 12 months if they lost their job between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009.  It will help low-income Americans by increasing food stamp benefits by over 13 percent to offset rising food costs for more than 31 million Americans, half of whom are children.  It will protect health care coverage for millions of Americans by providing $87 billion in additional federal matching funds to help states maintain their Medicaid programs over the next two years. (More federal government helping the states.)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will also provide $275 billion in tax cuts for 95% of American workers.  A provision called the “Make Work Pay” tax cut will provide a $500 tax credit to reduce tax withholding from workers’ paychecks.  This credit is phased out for individuals who earn more than $100,000 to so that it is focused on the middle class.  First-time home buyers will receive a $7,500 tax credit which will strengthen the housing market.  There are also a number of business tax credits included in the package designed to spur investment such as the extension of small business expensing which allows small businesses to double the amount they can write off on their taxes for capital investments in 2009.  To assist the unemployed, tax incentives are provided to businesses who hire recently discharged unemployed veterans and youth who have been out of work or school for 6 months prior to being hired.

The recovery package will also help our U.S. automakers regain their leadership role in the world by funding loans and grants towards the development of advanced vehicle batteries and battery systems.  This will allow them to transition to next generation hybrid vehicles which will reduce our dependency on foreign oil.  Strengthening the auto industry is essential because the jobs of millions of middle class Americans and the pensions and benefits of millions of retirees depend on a vibrant domestic auto industry.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will make an investment in our nation’s future by making education more affordable and accessible.  Funding is provided to help college students by increasing student loan assistance by $15.6 billion.  It invests in our nation’s children by increasing Head Start funding by $2.1 billion, which will provide educational services for preschool children.  It will also provide $6 billion to our universities in order to modernize our nation’s campuses to improve student education.

Thank you again for contacting me.  While the legislation is not perfect and there would be a number of things I would change for an economic recovery package, such as a stronger emphasis on construction projects, it is focused on investing in middle class Americans.  In Northern Michigan alone, local officials have identified more than $360 million in construction projects that would help their local economies.  While H.R. 1 contains no earmarks, funding will be distributed based on existing formulas to the State of Michigan.  I expect a number of these projects to receive some funding and will fight to ensure Northern Michigan gets its fair share.  Please feel free to contact me again in the future with issues that concern you.

Sincerely,

BART STUPAK
Member of Congress

National Review Online provides this summary of what is still in the Senate version of the plan:

“Various Left-Wingery”

Summary:
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”

“Poorly designed tax relief”

Summary:
$15 billion for business-loss carry-backs
$145 billion for “Making Work Pay” tax credits
$83 billion for the earned income credit

“Stimulus for the Government”

Summary:
$150 million for the Smithsonian
$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
$1 billion for the Census Bureau

“Income transfers”

Summary:
$89 billion for Medicaid
$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for food stamps

“Pure Pork”

Summary:
$4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
$850 million for Amtrak
$87 million for a polar icebreaking ship
$1.7 billion for the National Park System
$55 million for Historic Preservation Fund
$7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs”
$150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases
$150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish”
“Renewable Waste”

Summary:
$2 billion for renewable-energy research ($400 million for global-warming research)
$2 billion for a “clean coal” power plant in Illinois
$6.2 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program
$3.5 billion for energy-efficiency and conservation block grants
$3.4 billion for the State Energy Program
$200 million for state and local electric-transport projects
$300 million for energy-efficient-appliance rebate programs
$400 million for hybrid cars for state and local governments
$1 billion for the manufacturing of advanced batteries
$1.5 billion for green-technology loan guarantees
$8 billion for innovative-technology loan-guarantee program
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$4.5 billion for electricity grid

“Rewarding State Irresponsibility”

Summary:
$79 billion for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund

Now that it’s in the Senate’s hands, the bill has grown to $924 billion.  These summaries of NRO add up to a little over $585 billion.  Does that mean that $339 billion of  The Generational Theft Act is actually useful in stimulating the economy?

The United States Speaker of the House, third in line to the Presidency had this exchange with George Stephanopoulos yesterday on ABC’s This Week, about President Obama’s [...]]]>

The United States Speaker of the House, third in line to the Presidency had this exchange with George Stephanopoulos yesterday on ABC’s This Week, about President Obama’s stimulus proposal.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?
PELOSI (D): Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?
PELOSI (D): No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

The question from Stephanopoulos apparently was referring to a statement made by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R),  “At the end of the day, government can’t solve this problem, the American people have to solve it. And the way they can solve it is if we allow them to keep more of the money that they earn.”
“How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives?” he asked. “How does that stimulate the economy?”

Well, well, well, is The Speaker of the House saying that we are to stop having children in order to meet the goals of State Budgets?  Hmmmm.

I wonder if Jennifer Granholm (D) Michigan Governor, presiding over the worst economic downturn in State history feels the same way?  What about Bart Stupak (D)?  Does Bart Stupak (D) feel that children are too overwhelming a cost for the States to deal with?  What are the thoughts on this issue from Carl Levin (D), Debbie Stabenow (D), Andy Newman (D) hmmmm???

I’m telling you what, friend Democrats, you have no idea how extreme your Democrat party has become, and I am here to highlight it for you.