By Mark Devlin, IEN Staff
February 5, 2009 -- Curiously timed with President
Obama’s nomination of Republican Sen. Judd
Gregg for the Commerce Secretary cabinet position is the GOP's release of
its list of wasteful potential spending in the stimulus package (which now
amounts to $900 billion. Why don’t they call it a trillion and round it off?
Wait! This just in: $1.3 trillion with interest.)
Interesting list, and here it is. (NOTE: The opinions expressed herein are
not those of Industrial Equipment News or Thomas Publishing Company, or
any entity related in any way to Thomas Publishing Company. Also, no endangered
species were harmed in the production of this article.)
* $2 billion for FutureGen, a near-zero emissions
coal power plant in Illinois from which the DoE pulled funding last year after
having determined that the project was inefficient.
Zero-emissions coal is certainly a worthy cause, but $2 billion here and now
won’t help the country out of this mess. Their homepage states that FutureGen is
a public-private partnership. Keep it private. Maybe ExxonMobil could put record
profits toward the project, saving taxpayer dollars en route to success down the
road.
* $246 million as a tax break to Hollywood for movie producers buying
film.
To paraphrase My Cousin
Vinny, are they serious about this? Okay, once you forget the whole digital
thing with silicon and computers and all that newfangled stuff instead of
“film,” how the heck is a tax break for Hollywood going to help the
country/economy? Just send us movie tickets. We don’t get out much anymore,
anyway, and we’ll at least buy some U.S.-sourced popcorn, pretzel bits, and
Twizzlers while we’re watching stuff blow up.
* $650 million for the digital TV converter coupon
fiasco.
Forget the whole coupon deal. Either people have cable in their areas or they
don’t. If you’re going to fund anything here, throw money at cabling the areas
that don’t have it and put more people to work in the process. Better yet, screw
cable and go fiber optic nationwide, to the home. Oh, yeah. Private business is
already
starting on this. $650 million saved is $650 million earned.
* $448 million to build the headquarters for the Department of Homeland
Security.
* $248 million for furniture for said DoHS HQ.
That’s almost $700 million in new buildings, chairs, filing cabinets, and
furniture for an entity that’s been doing its job pretty well without an
additional $700 million. Agreed. Nix it. Expansion needed? There should be a
bunch of leftover $229,000
apiece FEMA trailers that’d make fine offices.
* $600 million to buy hybrids for federal employees.
How about federal employees drive their own cars and submit expenses as does
everyone else? Unless you’re a real-life Jack
Bauer wrecking an Explorer a week and putting your life on the line on a
regular basis, you don’t need a ‘company’ car on the taxpayer’s dime. If you
just HAVE to spend $600 billion on hybrids, put it into developing world-beating
(or even competitive) hybrid technology that all of Detroit could use (along
with other alternative propulsion methods) and a lot of society could buy as
a nation.
* $400 million for CDC screening to prevent STDs.
Spend such money ONLY if it can be accurately determined that doing so will,
in fact, substantially reduce healthcare costs. Then, you’re helping everyone
from Joe the Plumber (if anyone still wants to help Joe) to Rockwell. (Note to
the GOP: As long as you’re considering STDs, you also might want to address
unplanned, underage pregnancies, and maybe even ban shooting wildlife from
helicopters as a sport.)
* $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
We’re bailing out, um, trash? At best, this is another potential
environmental effort that should not be part of a stimulus bill unless it’s
putting a substantial number of Americans to work. People will always have
trash, and Waste Management will always tell us where to stick it—and even
provide the color-coded containers—sans government funding.
* $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
Yeah. Note to contractors: run bigger pipes to the Capital.
* $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.
This might work, especially if you display artifacts presenting how
prosperous the U.S. once was.
* $1 billion for the 2010 Census.
We know how many people are out of work, and we see more evidence every day
of more people joining the ranks of the unemployed. We know how many people are
losing their homes. We know how many people are scrimping and saving, and
also know that saving isn’t a bad thing unless the economy’s on its butt and
spending needs to happen in order to get things moving. Census? We don’t need a
census to determine these things, especially for a billion taxpayer dollars.
Census? C’mon. A billion would be better spent on building new NASCAR
tracks.
* $75 million for smoking cessation activities.
I once read a study that said smokers were more productive. It was probably
buried (no pun intended). It was also from back in the day, when smoking was
allowed in the workplace. So, today, perhaps smoking is, in fact, hurting U.S.
productivity. (Doesn’t seem to be hurting Japan or China. Huh.) While on the
topic of smoking, what about drinking? Not beer, but liquor, with which “people
can get more bang for their buck,” according
to this article. In at least a couple of states, including Michigan and New
Hampshire, liquor
sales are up while the economy is down.
* $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse
programs.
What happens on the reservation stays on the reservation. A) One man’s
Substance Abuse is another’s Quest for Enhanced Consciousness. B) If there is,
in fact, a tribal alcohol and substance abuse problem, let the related casino
owners who encourage such things help fund a fix, so to speak.
* $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi
River.
Puts people to work. Helps people (including manufacturers) remain productive
even in really bad weather. Helps people from getting swept away in floodwaters;
a good by-product. Keep this one in the stimulus. (Note to GOP: Do you
really want to say “Aw, hell. Let it flood.”?
* $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.
Again, if this will help put more people to work and help keep them
productive and profitable when this year’s 100 Year Storms hit after last
year’s, keep it in.
* $6 billion to make federal buildings green.
More fluorescent light bulbs and low-energy consumption devices are great,
but this is not stimulating and does not address the problem/s.
Powering all federal buildings with Lance Armstrong won’t solve the problems of
the economy.
* $500 million for state and local fire stations.
Putting fires out, especially those caused by cash-strapped owners torching
over-mortgaged properties for the insurance money, might be a bigger business as
we go along. What the heck. Keep this one in. What’s $500
million?
* $650 million for wildland fire management on forest
lands.
Okay. Here’s a for-instance. We’ve got major defense contractors in Southern
California. Many of their employees can’t even get to work when Santa Ana winds
kick up and fuel the incineration of brush and homes. Forest lands? Gimme a
break. How about just clearing a path for the employed to remain
employed?
* $1.2 billion for youth activities including summer job
programs.
Responsible parents raise and guide their children, and even help provide and
point them toward forms of healthy, summer entertainment and things-to-do.
Hurling $1.2 billion at this, however, in many ways negates parents and makes
the government responsible for things that should be part of family. While we’re
on the topic, why are we just talking summer jobs? Send them out into the cold,
cruel world when they’re of age, instead of letting them land on Free Parking
(hanging out in the basement into their thirties). How about parents start
chores-for-allowances again, along with teaching financial responsibility? How
about putting that $1.2 billion into U.S. manufacturing so that more kids have
PLACES TO WORK once they graduate? How about this money be put into apprentice
programs so that a good number of worthy people are measured by their talent,
smarts, drive, personality, and flexibility instead of their ability to skid
through a degree program between hangovers? If/once that happens, aerospace
manufacturers, for instance, will have a better chance of finding dedicated,
skilled, conscientious machinists. Many industries could also see a resurgence
of, oh, what’s it called? Craftsmanship.
Keeping kids busy in the summer isn’t the government’s responsibility, and
it’s certainly not going to stimulate the economy. Make it a separate program,
if necessary.
* $88 million to renovate Public Health Services HQ.
* $412 million for
CDC buildings and property.
* $500 million for building and repairing
National Institutes of Health facilities in Maryland.
That’s just too much ‘health’ for one country. Okay, how ‘bout we compromise
and you keep the ones that will put more people to work, say, in construction
for example. Don’t hand government new offices. They’re doing enough damage with
the old ones.
* $160 million for paid volunteers at the Corporation for National and
Community Service.
President Obama was formerly a “community organizer.” We get that. If he’d
worked in a Circuit
City, would the new regime have put $160 mil into saving the electronics
giant? No. Thus, bad idea.
* $5.5 million for energy efficient initiatives at the Department of
Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.
Um, energy efficiency in the Cemetery Administration? A cigarette and a drink
might help put some perspective on this.
* $850 million for Amtrak.
That’s cool. We’ve bailed out Amtrak before, and we will again. But,
hey...could you at least reduce ticket prices? Better yet, put the $850 million
into revitalizing the rail freight system in the U.S.
* $100 million to reduce the hazard of lead-based
paint.
How in the name of Sherwin Williams is this going to make anyone, anywhere,
anytime, more productive? Lead-based paint? See above comments about reasonable
parenting. If you have lead-based paint, remove and replace it (but don’t tell
the EPA, as you’ll require a hazmat crew to do it, and a substantial loan to
afford it. But that requires credit, which takes us back to Square One, doesn’t
it?). Generations of citizens are well aware, thank you, of the dangers of
lead-based paint. Reduce the hazard? Sure. Keep it out of drinking water. That’s
reasonable, and might even put more people to work. Save this part of the plan,
but modify it. Think specificity.
* $75 million to construct a security training facility for State
Department Security officers.
Is the State Department really 75 million dollars worth of insecure? I would
think not. If they are, I’m sure we have other federal facilities that could be
utilized for said training with no more effort than making a couple of
phonecalls. $75 million saved. Cha-ching.
* $100 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer
systems.
I don’t know where to begin on this one. Help please, kind
readers.
* $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for
use on military installations.
Aren’t those in the military known to be in the best physical shape of
anyone? That being the case, save the $200 million and walk or, if necessary,
spend a couple of hundred thousand on some cool camo bicycles.
Overall, there are two major problems. Firstly, the mortgage crisis.
Secondly, the credit crisis, which is affecting pretty much everyone including
manufacturers and their ability to buy new equipment. Very few of the above
handouts will make even a tiny bit of difference to solve those
things.
Also, keep in mind that even the government can’t and likely shouldn’t be
called upon to cure all of our ills. Look at Harley-Davidson, for instance. The
American icon just had a $300 million cash
infusion and will very likely survive (again) if managed properly.
Interestingly, one of the Harley investors is Warren Buffet, not the
government.
Conservative? Liberal? Bah. How about some simple common
sense?
Is it possible to focus on the problems and solutions here, using a bit more
reason and logic than does a cat pouncing on a new toy? (Ooooo!
Shiny!)
Remember: We’ll all pay for it later.
hat tip Stepperg
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