News Items That Melt My Hard Drive
In case you hadn't seen this on CNN's website yesterday, below is a comprehensive list of all the things that were cut out of the Senate version of the stimulus bill (I'd highly recommend following the links this time since they explain what exactly got cut and who exactly will suffer):
Partially cut:
• $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings (original bill $7 billion)
• $75 million from Smithsonian (original bill $150 million)
• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)
• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)
• $100 million from law enforcement wireless (original bill $200 million)
• $300 million from federal fleet of hybrid vehicles (original bill $600 million)
• $100 million from FBI construction (original bill $400 million)
Fully eliminated
• $55 million for historic preservation
• $122 million for new Coast Guard polar icebreaker/cutters
• $100 million for Farm Service Agency modernization
• $50 million for CSERES research
• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation
• $30 million for SD salaries
• $100 for distance learning
• $98 million for school nutrition
• $50 million for aquaculture
• $2 billion for broadband (Can anyone say "infrastructure of the 21st century?)
• $100 million for NIST
• $50 million for detention trustee
• $25 million for Marshalls Construction
• $300 million for federal prisons
• $300 million for BYRNE Formula
• $140 million for BYRNE Competitive
• $10 million state and local law enforcement
• $50 million for NASA
• $50 million for aeronautics
• $50 million for exploration
• $50 million for Cross Agency Support
• $200 million for National Science Foundation
• $100 million for science
• $1 billion for Energy Loan Guarantees
• $4.5 billion for GSA
• $89 million GSA operations
• $50 million from DHS
• $200 million TSA
• $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use
• $25 million for Fish and Wildlife
• $55 million for historic preservation
• $20 million for working capital fund
• $165 million for Forest Service capital improvement
• $90 million for State and Private Wildlife Fire Management
• $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start
• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity
• $2 billion for HIT Grants
• $600 million for Title I (NCLB)
• $16 billion for school construction
• $3.5 billion for higher education construction
• $1.25 billion for project based rental
• $2.25 for Neighborhood Stabilization
• $1.2 billion for retrofitting Project 8 housing
• $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization (includes $7.5 billion of state incentive grants)
Trillions for the Iraq war, Wall Street and tax cuts for the already bloated? Priceless.
Fuck getting a handle on crime, fuck overhauling the criminal justice system, fuck the sick and poor, fuck our children, fuck the farmers, fuck the environment, fuck science, fuck national security, essentially fuck any and every program and foundation dedicated to anything remotely akin to a progressive or even a pragmatic cause. The minority, I repeat, the minority Republican party screamed their heads off demanding this "pork" got hacked out of the bill. The Democrats caved in to them because they cannot do shit unless they have a 60% majority in the Senate. Vote them out. Vote their fat bipartisan asses out of Congress at the earliest available opportunity before they kill you in one way or another.
Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman gives his thoughts on the "compromise" in "Conscience of a Liberal."
posted by jurassicpork @ Sunday, February 08, 2009
8 comments
8 Comments:
This is how we separate the wheat from the chaff. The democrats that helped get these cuts in, like Nelson, are Republican operatives, like Nelson, they are sleeper cell terrorists activating to bring down America from within.
I just wish we had a Democratic president that would do something about this, I wish we had a large majority of Democrats in Congress that could have stopped this.
But sadly, the Democratic Party lost the 2008 elections. The GOP is still in total control of all three branches of government and America is still being deliberately destroyed by Republican policies.
the biggest sick making part of this for me is when i am forced to sit and listen to republicans talk about "fiscal discipline."
motherfuckers. they cut food stamps. food stamps, most economists will tell you, are economic stimulus on steroids. rather than giving wall street fuckfaces tax cuts to stash offshore, the poor take their food stamps straight to the market.
Why the whole military-industrial-congressional complex is taking the country down.
"As Spinney recalls, "In July 1989, when some members of Congress began to build a coalition aimed at canceling the B-2, Northrop Corporation, the B-2's prime contractor, retaliated by releasing data which had previously been classified showing that tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in profits were at risk in 46 states and 383 congressional districts." The B-2 was not cancelled. "
The only high end stuff we make and sell outside the country is military shit, and there aren't vey many congressmen who
don't take campaign contributions from defense contractors.
So, basically we're fucked.
Wow. Good catch, Nunya. I never knew about the defense contractors. Like we haven't already bailed them out these past 8+ years in cost-plus, no-bid contracts worth billions?
The GOP is ostensibly the party of white privilege. From the looks of things,it seems a lot of Democrats empathize with GOP tenets. That's what happens when privileged shut ins are elected and the only folks/interests considered by our elected officials are those with big money lobbyists behind them. It's not about passing legislation in the effort to help the majority of the countries constituents and moving the country forward. It's not about improving the lives of ordinary people. It's not really about protecting the food supply anymore. The war on terror is a joke and always was/is....Just like the war on drugs.it's about passing legislation based upon the monies political parties can receive from moneyed interests. Keeping the machine alive. Speaking of machines....Regarding the M-I-C...This country has been held hostage by this group for my entire life. I don't think this is gonna change anytime soon. Hell,all of the disparate branches of the armed forces could cease to exist..And the M-I-C will still be with us.
Unless the average/majority American becomes destitute to an extreme,I don't see things changing anytime soon.
Moreover,this negative influence over the body politic has been festering much longer than the previous 8 years. How odd,the worst administration in this nation's history..... will also be remembered as its most effective.
I think I'm gonna use this moniker from this moment forward.
The way I figure it, the economy still is nowhere near the bottom. Had the Dems not given in to GOP demands, and passed a bill over the heads of the Republicans, the conservatives could scream "see! the economy has gotten worse and it their fault!". Now, when the economy continues its downward slide, the Dems can say, "well, we tried to make a big stimulus package, but the GOP forced us to remove things that were good for the People and replace them with the same old things that Republicans have been shoving down our throats for decades, the same things that led to this mess in the first place. But as long as they hold a forty seats in the Senate and vote as a bloc, there's not much we can do".
It may not win them any seats, but it may stave off the kind of loss that traditionally comes in the elections between presidential years. And that can only be a good thing.
Imagine if you will, what kind of Republicans will get into power should the economy continue to slide and the GOP Machine successfully blames it all on the Democrats. You think the Bush years were bad? The true loonies will come out of the closet, then.
The removal of $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization is really going to hurt. A lot of states are looking at big cuts in education and health care.
On the plus side, by 1937 the GOP minority shrank to 16 seats in the Senate. Wouldn't mind seeing that history repeat itself.
...and 88 in the House.
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