Call your representatives to urge them to vote no on this piece of garbage (HR 1 – $900,000,000,000 Obama stimulus plan).
Some highlights regarding the stimulus plan:
[Source: Committee on Appropriations: January 15, 2009]• $825 billion total (as of 1/15/09)
• $550 billion in new spending, described as thoughtful and carefully targeted priority investments with unprecedented accountability measures built in.
• $275 billion in tax relief ($1,000 tax cut for families, $500 tax cut for individuals through SS payroll deductions)
• $ 90 billion for infrastructure
• $ 87 billion Medicaid aid to states
• $ 79 billion school districts/public colleges to prevent cutbacks
• $ 54 billion to encourage energy production from renewable sources
• $ 41 billion for additional school funding ($14 billion for school modernizations and repairs, $13 billion for Title I, $13 billion for IDEA special education funding, $1 billion for education technology)
• $ 24 billion for “health information technology to prevent medical mistakes, provide better care to patients and introduce cost-saving efficiencies” and “to provide for preventative care and to evaluate the most effective healthcare treatments.”
• $ 16 billion for science/technology ($10 billion for science facilities, research, and instrumentation; $6 billion to expand broadband to rural areas)
• $ 15 billion to increase Pell grants by $500
• $ 6 billion for the ambiguous “higher education modernization.”
HT: Glenn Beck – read the rest for a further breakdown. He also mentions the timeliness in which these dollars are supposed to be spent.
The government wouldn’t be able to spend at least one-fourth of a proposed $825 billion economic stimulus plan until after 2010, according to a preliminary report by the Congressional Business Office that suggests it may take longer than expected to boost the economy. The government would spend about $26 billion of the money this year and $110 billion more next year, the report said. About $103 billion would be spent in 2011, while $53 billion would be spent in 2012 and $63 billion between 2013 and 2019.
• Less than $5 billion of the $30 billion set aside for highway spending would be spent within the next two years, the CBO said.
• Only $26 billion out of $274 billion in infrastructure spending would be delivered into the economy by the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, just 7 percent.
• Just one in seven dollars of a huge $18.5 billion investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy programs would be spent within a year and a half.
• About $907 million of a $6 billion plan to expand broadband access in rural and other underserved areas would be spent by 2011, CBO said.
• Just one-fourth of clean drinking water projects can be completed by October of next year.
• $275 billion worth of tax cuts to 95 percent of filers and a huge infusion of help for state governments is to be distributed into the economy more quickly.
[Note: The CBO’s analysis applied only to 40 percent of the overall stimulus bill, and doesn’t cover tax cuts or efforts; a CBO report outlining all of its costs is expected in the next week or so.]
How would this stimulate the economy right away? How will this create jobs? All I see this doing is increasing the size of the Federal Government and passing along further debt to my children and future grandchildren.
Update: I just called my Congressman, Leonard Boswell, and his staff didn’t even wait to take contact info from me (hung up while I was asking him if he wanted my contact info). Don’t worry Congressman, I’ll be watching how you vote.
2nd Update: I learned via Wendy on Twitter that there are still 11 amendments to be discussed so the vote will not happen until later this afternoon. So it is NOT too late to call your Representative.
3rd Update: Saw this money quote in the International Herald:
“The Democrat bill won’t stimulate anything but more government and more debt,” Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the Republican conference, said Tuesday. “The slow and wasteful spending in the House Democrat bill is a disservice to millions of Americans who want to see this Congress take immediate action to get this economy moving again.”
Congressman Pence – you rock!
4th Update: Well it looks like the House GOP does have a backbone toward this stimulus bill. HT: Michelle Malkin
5th Update: The theft act passes in the House at a grand total of a measly $819,000,000,000. I hear the Senate Bill is even worse. Every Republican voted against (with one who had to leave early). Eleven Democrats joined the GOP. As Michelle Malkin puts it, “This crap sandwich is all yours, Dems.”