The good news is that Nancy Pelosi and Congressional Democrats seem to be reconsidering their plans to fund contraception services in the stimulus package. Apparently, they couldn’t quite make the case that this would create new jobs:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/01/27/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4756202.shtml
However, the bad news is that there is still a lot of pork getting cooked in this stimulus package. More than $800 billion in new spending. And yet so much of it will be wasted on programs that won’t create jobs. In this present economic crisis, the test should be: will it create new jobs? Take a look at the list below of pork items that are currently in the stimulus package. And ask yourself if any of these will create new jobs:
- $6.7 billion to renovate and improve energy efficiency at federal buildings
- $2.5 billion to upgrade low-income housing
- $1.1 billion to Amtrax
- $1.8 billion to repair National Park Service facilities
- $800 million to clean up Superfund sites
- $600 million for General Services Administration to replace older vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles
- $426 million to construct facilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- $400 million for NASA scientists to conduct climate change research
- $400 million to replace the Social Security Administration’s 30-year-old National Computer Center
- $360 million for new child care centers at military bases
- $276 million to update technology at the State Department
- $200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall
- $150 million for the Coast Guard to repair or remove bridges deemed a hazard to navigation
- $50 million for the Endowment for the Arts
- $44 million for repairs at the Agriculture Department headquarters in Washington
-Randy Hill
