California Congressman Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills voted for the "porkpalooza" stimulous bill yesterday.
The vote yesterday showed that the only bi-partisanship was the opposition vote. Eleven (11) Democrats joined the unanimous Republicans in opposing the stimulous bill. The 'yes' vote was totally partisan. Only Democrats voted for it.
The Wall Street Journal editorialized:
"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."
So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic "stimulus," but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm's point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.
We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
Another "stimulus" secret is that some $252 billion is for income-transfer payments -- that is, not investments that arguably help everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all. There's $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax. While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, they aren't job creators.
To see the full WSJ editorial, go here.
As Jack Ryan wrote in the Post Chronicle:
Reports of what's in the new stimulus is causing tons of questions in the media and the people in America. According to reports, $335,000,000 is going towards sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs. I thought this was a economy stimulus bill?
Besides that, it is reported that the radical community organizer group ACORN is to receive billions from this bill. Economic stimulous?! This is nothing but a redistribution of wealth to Democrat/Leftist special interest groups.
FoxNews.com reported:
Republican lawmakers are raising concerns that ACORN, the low-income advocacy group under investigation for voter registration fraud, could be eligible for billions in aid from the economic stimulus proposal working its way through the House.
House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a statement over the weekend noting that the stimulus bill wending its way through Congress provides $4.19 billion for "neighborhood stabilization activities."
He said the money was previously limited to state and local governments, but that Democrats now want part of it to be available to non-profit entities. That means groups like ACORN would be eligible for a portion of the funds.
And, the Associated Press noted:
Undocumented immigrants who are not eligible for a Social Security number can file tax returns with an alternative number. A House-passed version of the economic recovery bill and one making its way through the Senate would allow anyone with such a number, called an individual taxpayer identification number, to qualify for the tax credits.
Most of the (arguably) stimulous spending won't even kick in until 2010, an election year. What are people supposed to do in the meantime?
And Brad Sherman, the congressman in my district, voted for it! His idiocy knows no bounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment