The Stimulus Package

There are things that I favor in the package, such as additional support for primary and secondary education, but there are a lot of things that totally piss me off.



TOP 28 FAST FACTS ABOUT THE HOUSE DEMOCRATS' TRILLION DOLLAR SPENDING PLAN The $850 billion Phony Stimulus Plan slated for a House vote later this week will exceed more than $1.1 trillion when adding in the interest ($300 plus billion) between 2009-2019 to pay for it.

The Capitol Hill Democrats' plan includes funding for contraceptives, regardless of where anyone stands on taxpayer funded contraception, there is no question that it has NOTHING to do with the economy. (Since Monday this idiocy has been removed -- due to bi-partisan outcry!)

The Phony Stimulus Plan could open billions of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups like the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN), which has been accused of voter fraud, is reportedly under federal investigation; and played a key role in the housing meltdown. (NOTE: we have discovered that ACORN will recieve over 4 billion dollars!)

Here are just a few of the programs and projects that have been included in the House Democrats' proposal:

$650 million for digital TV coupons;

$600 million for new cars for the federal government;

$6 billion for colleges/universities;

$50 million in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts;

$44 million to repair the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters;

$200 million for the National Mall, including $21 million for sod!

The plan establishes at least 32 new government programs at a cost of over $136 billion. That means more than a third of this plan's spending provisions are dedicated to creating new government programs.

The plan provides spending in at least 150 different federal programs, ranging from Amtrak to the Transportation Security Administration. Is this the "targeted" plan Democratic leaders promised?

Even though the legislation contains at least 152 separate spending proposals, the authors of the plan can only say that 34 have any chance at keeping or growing jobs.

Just one in seven dollars of an $18.5 billion expenditure on "energy efficiency" and "renewable energy programs" would be spent within the next 18 months.

The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

House Democrats' plan will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

The plan provides enough spending – $825 billion – to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700. $825 billion is enough to give every person in Ohio $72,000.

$825 billion is enough to give every person living in poverty in the United States $22,000.

Although the House Democrats' proposal has been pitched as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, in actuality only $30 billion of the plan – or three percent – is for road and highway spending. A recent study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that only 25 percent of infrastructure dollars can be spent in the first year, making the one year total less than $7 billion.

Much of the funding within the House Democrats' proposal will go to programs that already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the plan provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) – a program that already has $16 billion on hand. States also are sitting on some $9 billion in unused highway funds – funds that Congress is prepared to rescind later this year.

All board members of the "Accountability and Transparency Board" created by this legislation are appointees of the President; none will be appointed by Congress.

A scant 2.7 percent, or $22.3 billion of the overall package, is dedicated to small business tax relief.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the legislation increases by seven million the number of people who get a check back from the IRS that exceeds what they paid in payroll and income taxes.

The "Making Work Pay" tax credit at the center of the plan amounts to $1.37 a day, or about the price of a cup of coffee.

Almost one-third of the so-called "tax relief" in the House Democrats' plan is spending in disguise, meaning that true tax relief makes up only 24 percent of the total package – not the 40 percent that President Obama had requested.

$825 billion is just the beginning – many Capitol Hill Democrats want to spend even more taxpayer dollars on their "stimulus" plan. In fact, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. David Obey (D-WI), told Roll Call earlier this month, "I would not be surprised to see us go further on some of these programs down the line."