The stimulus package – What are your tax dollars paying for

 

The total stimulus package that has been proposed by the Democrats in Congress comes to a grand total of $825 Billion.  This includes $275 Billion in tax cuts and $550 Billion in new government spending.

The tax cuts are something that I have talked about before.  That is their refundable tax credit.  They should just be tax credits, otherwise it is just another form of welfare.  The appropriations committee’s summary of the stimulus hardly even talks about these tax cuts.  They simply say they will provide tax relief to 95% of workers.  I guess they have picked up on the fact that people have learned their new vocabulary.

You will be surprised to find that the spending in this stimulus looks more like welfare and the pursuit of a liberal agenda than actually items that would work for the economy.  If you remember the first bank bailout, Democrats in congress put in language that would send 20% of the government’s profits back to organizations like ACORN.  Well, in this stimulus they have done the same thing but indirectly.  Here are some examples.

$2.5 Billion for a new program to upgrade HUD sponsored low-income housing to increase energy efficiency.

$6.2 Billion to help low income families reduce their energy costs by weatherizing their homes.

$5 Billion to public housing capital fund for repair of public housing

$1.5 Billion to help local communities build and rehabilitate low income housing

$4.2 Billion to help communities purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed, vacant properties in order to create affordable housing.

They have also done more to pay off the people that got them elected through other welfare type appropriations.  Some more examples.

$2 Billion to provide child care services for low income families.

$20 Billion for food stamps and to lift restrictions that limit the amount of time individuals can receive food stamps

$1 Billion to help low income families pay for home heating and cooling

$27 Billion to continue the current extended unemployment benefits program and an additional $9 Billion to increase the current unemployment benefit

Another set of government spending is meant to ease us into universal healthcare with one line item even saying as much.  This is another liberal agenda item that they cannot afford but can if they do it under the guise of an economic stimulus package.  They understand that if they can get it started, the publics sense of entitlement will not allow anyone to take it away.  The same happened with social security, which was never designed to be a long term system.

$600 million to address shortages and prepare our country for universal healthcare

$1.5 Billion to community health centers, including $500 million to increase the number of uninsured Americans who receive healthcare

$87 Billion to increase the share of Medicaid costs the federal government reimburses states

$30.3 Billion to extend health insurance coverage to the unemployed (COBRA program)

Like the Bush administration’s reasoning behind the Iraq War, President Obama has only highlighted a couple of the things in the stimulus.  He is probably hoping you don’t read the rest. One of those is infrastructure.  This has been one of his key points for this stimulus but they only allocated $90 Billion for infrastructure of roads, bridges, transit and waterways.  A second point is help to small businesses.  There is only $880 million dollars allocated to promote small business opportunity.  That is not a mistype.  $880 million.  Compare that to the $20 Billion they spent on the food stamp program.

There are other items that do not really address our economy as well.  There is $650 million to continue the coupon program to enable American households to convert from analog to digital.  $1 Billion to provide incentives for states to collect child support owed to families and $1 Billion for work necessary to ensure a successful 2010 census with a priority of ensuring minorities are correctly accounted for.  There is of course the ever so popular $360 million spent on contraceptives (note: it is worded new child development centers in the document…I believe.  They hide stuff pretty well). Compare that to $100 million for grants to faith based organizations to help the needy.

Another lobbying group that got their fair share of appropriations is the green lobby or the Al Gore global warming fanatics if that will not offend anyone.  I say fanatics because global warming has been basically disproved now by scientists, but that has not kept our government from using it as a political tool.  Almost every item in the stimulus has some type of climate change angle.  These open minded liberals have once again ignored the two main energy supplies in the world, coal and oil.  Once again I will say it.  We cannot become independent of foreign energy sources until we decide to use our own.  Cleaner energies are a great thing, but they will not be developed overnight.

As a side note, I did find it quite humorous that they included $2.4 Billion for carbon capture and sequestration technology demonstration projects.  They say this funding will provide valuable information necessary to reduce carbon dioxide emitted.  I wonder if they realize that one of the big bad oil companies (Exxon) has spent billions of dollars over the last decade to develop and use this technology to reduce their emissions already.

If you think like me, then you would agree that a lot of this has nothing to do with the economy and a lot to do with a liberal agenda…to say payback those who gave their political contributions or gave an un-informed vote…or wanted a handout.  For the amount of jobs the Obama administration says this stimulus will create, it will cost the taxpayer approximately $275,000 per job.  I am by no means an expert, but I would have to say that there is a more efficient way to get it done.

Here is a link to the Appropriations Committee’s summary of the stimulus package.  Obama and his minions probably do want to genuinely help people, but giving handouts is not the answer.  If you think that this is just more wasteful spending, then make your voice heard.  Contact your congressman and let them know.

Tagged as: liberal agenda, stimulus package