January 22, 2009
by neighhay
Yes, there really is a website which has been set up so all of us can read the latest bill concocted under the troubled Troubled Assets Relief Program. My advice to everybody is to go there and peruse all 258 pages (and growing) of this monstrosity. Because it seems by the time they pass this bill, most of our lawmakers won’t have read very much if any of it themselves and some of us might as well be vaguely informed as to what it’s all about.
I am not going to pretend I have digested all I read and in fact much of it I’ve only skimmed in order to get the general picture. But here is the gist of it: if this enormous bill passes– and it looks as if it will short of divine intervention or total and relentless outrage 24/7 on the part of innocent taxpayers– rest assured that our federal government will be able to say to every single one of us “Gotcha covered!” And I mean covered. If this bill passes, it does not seem to me there will be many aspects of my life where federal and/ or state and/ or local government won’t be putting money in my hand, albeit indirectly, and trying to protect me even when I’m not holding my hand out. This is very disturbing.
The overall plan is to flood pretty much every existing government agency you’ve ever heard of with “stimulation.” It seems the government is planning to spend billions of dollars to construct a spider’s web of state and local hubs with the purpose of creating projects and jobs. Until the jobs provide enough prosperity, or if they never do, the hubs will dispense money and services to maintain people’s health and welfare.
My goodness, I had no idea so many government agencies were in need of shoring up! There’s the Dept. of The Interior, the Dept. of Justice, the Dept of Labor, the Dept of Agriculture, the Dept of Commerce, the Dept. of Transportation, the EPA, Health and Human Services, FHA, BLM, Fish and Wildlife, the Dept. of Defense, Homeland Security, FEMA— the list goes on and on. It is quite staggering. In some cases these bureaucrats are getting billions, in some cases only millions, and in almost all cases there will be oversight entities the creation and management of which will be in the millions.
I am still in shock looking at this thing, and trust me it is a THING. But I have managed to identify a few of the highlights for me, and here they are:
Housing and Urban Development: 5 billion, Fed Transportation Administration: 6 billion, Highway Infrastructure: 30 billion, Higher Education Act: 16 billion, Education for Disadvantaged: 13 billion, Rural Development: 5 billion, Employment Training: 4 billion. And remember that these amounts do not include millions of dollars for the oversight entities ( money for salaries and in some cases building actual facilities) required for each disbursement of “stimulus.”
A couple of other memorable stimuli are 44 million for some agricultural buildings that we need somewhere (and 245 million in salaries to go with the buildings,) 300 million for job corps centers, operating expenses for the Corporation for National and Community Service, 300 million for the National Mall, etc. etc.
A few interesting tidbits I gleaned from the bill are:
There is a Broadband initiative (covered I believe under Rural Development) which seeks to insure that every household in the US can have internet access other than dialup. I heard discussion of this on CSPAN where a Representative from Texas complained that the way it has been set up in the bill, local Broadband contractors will not be eligible to do the work — so much for local job creation.
The government wants to build a new national computer center.
This bill contains a provision to limit the “administrative expenses” of the Social Security Administration.
AND I learned some new jargon so that I can hold my head high and be informed as I journey further into the 21st century:
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication technologies to deliver medical information and services to locations at a distance from the care giver or educator.
US Green Building Rating System is The United States Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating standard referred to as the LEED Green Building Rating System.
Spare me.
This only the tip of the iceberg. You can do your civic duty and read the entire bill here http://readthestimulus.org/ but don’t say I didn’t warn you. ( The website is sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, Kithridge, NTU, CAGW, Freedom Works, CFG, Redstate, Taxpayers for Commonsense, Americans for Prosperity, TCOT, and Lighthouse Strategies and Consulting)
