20 Facts about the Stimulus

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1. The $825 billion package 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.

2. 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.

3. The legislation could open billions of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups like the Association of Community Organizations 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.

4. 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 – many which have billion dollar endowments.

· $50 million in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.

· $44 million for repairs to U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters.

· $200 million for the National Mall, including $21 million for sod.

5. 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.

6. 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?

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

10. The House Democrats’ bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

11. The bill 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.

12. $825 billion is enough to give every person living in poverty in the United States $22,000.

13. Although the House Democrats’ proposal has been billed as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, in actuality only $30 billion of the bill – 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.

14. Much of the funding within the House Democrats’ proposal will go to programs that already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the bill 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.

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

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

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Almost one-third of the so-called “tax relief” in the House Democrats’ bill 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.

20. $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.”

Sign me up!

:eek:

[GmanJoe]

I want mine in $20 bills.

I\'m sure clips wants his in $1 bills rolled up. It\'s pimpin\'.

[Paul2]

too much to read.  can\'t understand most of the politics there.

I don\'t mind some stuff like the money to buy new cars, that gets funneled right into our economy. I think spending is the best bet even though tax relief is fun. We tried that and it didn\'t work.
 
It\'s a huge cost, though, and I\'m not sure the payoff will be worth it. It probably should be pared back and not added to. More later? Ugh...

[clips]

· $650 million for digital TV coupons.

· $600 million for new cars for the federal government.

· $6 billion for colleges/universities – many which have billion dollar endowments.

· $50 million in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.

· $44 million for repairs to U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters.

· $200 million for the National Mall, including $21 million for sod.

The 650 million for digital coupons is a complete waste...and i\'m skeptical of that 50 Mil for the nat. endowment of arts,...but everything else deals with some kind of infrastructure improvement and there\'s nothing wrong with spending money on education and the 600 mil for gov\'t cars is somthing that the gov\'t spends on new cars anyway.

Depending on who you talk to, some polititians will state some of those programs will generate revenue and jobs for their state, while others will completely disagree. Both sides are guilty of adding pork to this bill, even with the first package that bush implemented, republicans did not approve of it until they themselves added pork to it.

Listening to the folks on cnn break it down, it does have some pork programs, but overall, at least from what i got out of it, it deals with creating alot of jobs dealing with infrastructure,...which is good, but i didn\'t hear too much about how they plan to deal with the housing mess, which was kind of the catalyst of this whole financial meltdown.

I still say the banks should re-structure the loans for folks that are in those bad loans and give them a lower rate that they can afford and let the banks take a hit on the interest, they are already receiving billions from the tax payer and so far they have been hoarding the money they\'ve recieved.

Read some print material, the television networks are full of idiots.

[videoholic]

I can\'t comprehend why banks should have to rewrite loans for people stupid enough to get in over their heads?  An old neighbor of mine refinanced twice during the big boom and I bet he is now about 90 grand in the whole on his house..  So are you saying that he deserves to get something?  The bank should take a hit because he wanted a jacuzzi for his porch?

Why can\'t I get my house adjusted too?  My house is probably worth about 200 grand less right now, so why can\'t I get an adjustment too?  Because I can afford the payment I get screwed.

Good point, everyone should get a lower interest rate. Interest is just profit and if it\'s so out of control that people can\'t pay their loans, then no one wins. Lower the interest rates and banks can hopefully still profit while people can still afford to live.

I\'d like to see that. I know someone with student loans of probably about 40k and the interest effectively doubles that debt. That\'s a whole other story, but it shows me how interest rates can really be unfair and restructuring loans so that all this debt can be paid off would be a great way to allow people to pump some money back into other places.

[clips]

That is what i was saying in a nutshell....now of course this wouldn\'t apply to everybody,....this is not going to help people that were dumb enough to a buy a $700,000 home with the said couple making only 45,000 a year combined...that\'s crazy and both the consumer and the bank will have to eat those types of irresponsible lending.

All i\'m saying is to maybe lower the interest for those folks that are in foreclosure that may only need to drop their interest rate by a couple of points so that they  can at least make the payment....the overall goal is to stop the foreclosures and to get money flowing back into the system. Again, banks can afford the hit, especially with the billions in relief in they just recently recieved by both the former president, and the current president.