“Change You Can Believe In? Wrong!"

by jwright, from my article published January 29 in the Cadillac News.
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“Change You Can Believe In?” You must be joking. $850 billion taxpayer dollars spread over a 647 page bill, HR-1, the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” is being rushed through the House of Representatives. It’s referred to as a “Stimulus and Job Creation Package.” Your taxpayer dollars that are supposed to stimulate our economy and shorten the recession, but will take years to take effect, won’t create many actual jobs. Call it what it is; “Porkification.”

Here’s part of what the Congressional Democrat lawmakers propose:
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1. $4.19 billion to ACORN – A questionable, far left political organization.
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2. $200 million for the beautification of the National Mall, including $21 million for sod. (Note: this was removed via an Republican amendment before the House vote, as was one other spending item.)
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3. Over $200 million for contraceptives and the abortion industry.
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4. $650 million for digital TV coupons.
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5. $136 billion to create at least 32 new government programs – more than a third of H.R.1’s spending provisions would go towards growing the government—not the economy.
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6. $600 million for new cars for the federal bureaucrats.
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7. $50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts. (This may have been the other spending item removed.)
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8. $6 billion for colleges and universities –many of whom already have billion dollar endowments.
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9. $300 billion to bail out selected state governments – “Wealth redistribution?” Are the days over of state governments taking care of themselves and balancing their own budgets? (Of that $300-billion, $140 billion goes to additional education funding, doing absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy or create jobs.)
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10. Increased spending on more than 150 existing federal programs. (The Wall Street Journal published an article saying that less than 5%, or only $5-billion of this massive boon-doggle would be spent on job creating infrastructure such as bridge and highway repair.)
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In summary, this list illustrates that Congressional Democrats have little intention of actually stimulating the economy, and “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” comes up embarrassingly short on efforts to cut taxes in any meaningful way. The nation is facing near bankruptcy and it appears they are attempting to spend our way into prosperity.
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Additionally, when this HR-1 passed the House, with 'Yea' votes consisting of just Democrats, and all 177 Republicans and 11 Democrats in opposition, the Senate then added more spending rasing the total to about $900 billion. Add in the interest this bill will cost, because there is NO money in the national treasury to fund it, the costs will exceed more than $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Isn't that sweet? Congress just indebted every family in the country about another $6,700.00.
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Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in effect, "This isn't a stimulus bill, it's a spending bill." If it looks like a pig and walks like a pig, it's probably a pig, and that's PORK friends. There's still time to call your particular United States Senator and let your thoughts be heard.
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jaq~