ha!!! you think 20bn in funding towards green energy is pork? you think ~100bn in school re-investment funding is pork?

how about extending unemployment and health care coverage to the 8% of the population that is unemployed? they wont spend that money?

or this crap from the right about pay-roll tax payers who "dont pay taxes".

maybe you are coming at this from the left and want MORE infrastructure spending - in which case - I agree with you - but I think Obama wanted to reach out the hand of bi-partisanship KNOWING that the Rush Limbaugh-conservatives would slap it away along with any legitimacy they would want for the 2010 elections.

anyways - sorry for the rant.

1/8th of this pork at least goes to people who do not work -- only about 10% of it will be spent in 2009. No stimulus at all.

"
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We were told that it would keep people from winding up on the streets. Only $11 billion goes to housing assistance.

We were told that it would help Americans who got laid off. Only $4.6 billion goes to employment and training programs, and $27 billion to expand unemployment benefits. (By contrast, the bill raises Medicaid spending by $89 billion.)

We were told that it had to be passed immediately. But the Congressional Budget Office notes that large portions of the spending cannot even begin until spring and will take three to eight years to complete."

From -- the NUH

http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Bad+medicine:+Stimulus+bill+is+sickening&articleId=2a505eff-803e-40d6-a1cc-4a5976b88449

Join the game and debate while you align.

Bump

cpt - first off - when they say in 2009 - that's "fiscal year 2009" which ends in September... so about 90bn of infrastructure in 6 months is not bad (this does not include the tax-cuts or money to states).

not to mention that business depends on 'future' growth of economy not just for the next 12 months. if businesses know more money is coming down the pike, they then can invest with confidence that the government will keep stimulating the economy.

2nd - on tax cuts - corporate and capital gains tax cuts only give a minor 'multiplier effect'. but tax-cuts to low-income working Americans have a HUGE multiplier effect because they spend it all. As for this idea that 'people don't work' that is BS. the tax-cuts on offer are to those Americans who do work FULL-TIME... often two or three jobs... these are hard-working waitresses, bus drivers, factory workers, and hard-hats who might not make enough to pay income tax, but they pay 12-19% in payroll taxes. so this conservative BS that they don't pay taxes is just that - rhetorical BS. The kind of Luntz-inspired linguistic gymnastics that has symbolized the modern Republican party. anyone remember "compassionate conservatism"? like I said - BS.

you mention 11bn and 4.6bn and 27bn as if these are small numbers - these are BIG numbers. and the Medicaid spending is going directly to the 50 states (where health care plans are on the verge of being cut).

Would you prefer that these kids all go without? of course as a conservative, you think that 5 year olds should pick themselves up by their 'bootstraps'. never mind that they dont know how to tie their shoes and many of them don't even have shoes.

its amazing to me how after conservatives have destroyed this country's economy, foreign policy, doubled the debt in 8 years, and not solved a single social ill - still want to continue the same counterproductive and discredited plans.