Green Builders Blog

God BLESS America asked:


On Monday, House Republican leaders put out a list of what they call wasteful provisions in the Senate version of the nearly _$900 billion_ stimulus bill that is being debated:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship) (global warming equipment?)

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland
Security headquarters.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.

• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.” (what’s that?)

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction. (I thought they were exempt from the Fed. government)

+500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings.

• $500 million for state and local fire stations.

• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.

• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job
programs. (Obama’s youth?)

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.

• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.

• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health
facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.

• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for
National and Community Service. (paid volunteers?)

• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the
Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

• $850 million for Amtrak, a business that’s been losing money for the past 20 years. ( I think Amtrak should be revamped)

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State
Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for
use on military installations. (but O wants to cut our nukes by 80 percent?)

*If you were voting to spend _our_ money, is this how you would be doing it under the guise of “stimulus”?*

*Kentucky wisdom: “If it smells like a pig, and squeals like a pig, and
eats any slop that you serve it, then it is certainly a politician that is
pushing pork into what they would argue should be a legitimate bill.*

*Note: House Republicians have identified the above as wasteful.

What do you think?***

Ollie