Which programs on this "stimulus package waste list" do you agree is...indeed...waste?

[RiverStone]

Before we get to the list, I find it ironic that although the rethugs generated it - they don't acknowledge that they were (and are) proponents of the most wasteful program conceived in modern times - the Iraq War!

With that being said, I will admit to some agreement here. In particular:

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

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

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

Complete list here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/02/gop.stimulus.worries/index.html

This is our money folks; and after seeing the stupid fucks flush 18 billion of it away into Wall Street bonuses, there has to be rigorous over sight of how the next pile of billions will be spent.

What do you think of the proposed expenditures on the list? :shrug:

[sandnsea]

1. I think Democrats are being duped again

We're such fucking stooges. Huff Post is going to help Republicans bash the program too, woohoo!

[w4rma]

2. I don't see a need for a 'Homeland' Security Department. The FBI, CIA, NSA, CDC, DoD and FEMA

already cover the stated role of this department.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Lose the furniture for stupid Homeland Security. It doesn't keep any jobs.

[endarkenment]

5. Sure it does.

Is there a 'buy american' provision?

[ContinentalOp]

15. I support the furniture but not the department.

Let's scrap the department of homeland security, buy the furniture anyway (american made of course) and just give it away! :P

[endarkenment]

18. The government could just buy random shit from american manufacturers

and put it all in THAT WAREHOUSE FROM INDIANA JONES or just blow it all up. The point is to prime the damn pump.

[hay rick]

22. The Homeland Security Headquarters

costs $448 million and the furniture for it costs $248 million. Using the same building/furniture ratio, a $200,000 house would need to outfitted with $110,000 worth of furniture. We're talking either some real expensive furniture or one hell of a bargain on the building...

[endarkenment]

4. You all have lost your minds

you have fallen right into the refuglican framing.

What is the concept behind an economic stimulus? What is the government attempting, exactly to do, and how exactly does that stimulate the economy?

Here is a clue: buy shit, hire people, spend money.

[gratuitous]

6. I added up the numbers

Out of an $818 billion package, they claim that just a little more than $19 billion is "wasteful." For the math-challenged out there, that's a smidgen over 2%. Ignoring the merits of any of the individual programs objected to (which include upgrading and greening the government vehicle fleet, seemingly a damn good idea for both government and the carmakers it would purchase from), this seems pretty goddam picayune.

Will the Fourth Estate bulldogs at CNN laugh this off the air: Republican nit-picking over 2% of a heueueuege package after they've squandered four or five times that amount for Bush's little wars of aggression? Don't count on it for a second.

It's up to us, folks. If anything resembling the truth is going to leak out, e-mail CNN early, often, and above all, politely.

[hay rick]

27. $19 billion, curiously,

is the same number that McCain's ban on earmarks would have saved out of a budget approaching $3 trillion. In the case of earmarks, this represented less than 1% of total spending. The media ignored the fact that earmarks were roughly equivalent to a rounding error and accepted McCain's shtick as proof of his commitment to fiscal responsibility.

[CTyankee]

7. Several of the items seem to be infrastructure work that would require hiring workers

while doing work that needs to be done anyhow. I don't understand how it's "waste" if you are hiring people to do jobs?

[scheming daemons]

8. Everything in that list involves BUYING stuff and BUILDING stuff

That's what economic stimulus IS.


Get businesses going again by BUYING stuff.


the $248 million in new furniture for Homeland Security offices is going to be spent on new furniture.... thus helping furniture companies make a profit... and hire more people... and expand their businesses.



I swear, people have lost their freaking minds.

[endarkenment]

10. see my post above

they've bought the refuglican framing, as usual, and are now off debating which spending is good and which is bad, which is good pork and which is bad pork. 800B needs to get spent and spent quickly. That is the whole idea.

We are Chicken Little's devotees.

[Venceremos]

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

They have enough money, let them buy it themselves.

[ContinentalOp]

14. That one makes sense to me

"According to Congress Daily, a trade paper, the Senate bill, like the House version, extended tax incentives allowing companies to write off 50% of their equipment costs. But the Senate bill was amended to include "certain motion picture film or videotape," increasing the provision’s cost from $5.07 billion to $5.32 billion. Congress Daily quoted a lobbyist for the industry as saying that the movie equipment has been "unfairly excluded" from bonus depreciation in the past, which has generally applied to most other equipment purchases."

What's wrong with that? Why is movie equipment excluded from the same equipment writeoffs that other industries enjoy? And why shouldn't the cost of film be written off as well? That's basically a handout to Kodak, not so much the studios, as it may keep some productions from going digital in the near future, as more and more big productions abandon film.

http://www.thewrap.com/article/1228

[graywarrior]

11. Republican salaries

Total waste.

[humanityisfree]

12. Wow - this is stimulating (sorry)

After looking over this list, which I originally saw on CNN.com, I really feel that nearly all of it can be justified as stimulus. I will say that some, especially the film for hollywood, seems like a joke, and that not all will be the "shot in the arm" that people might be looking for, but for the most part this seems like an appropriate response to an overwhelming issue.
We need to start looking down the road, and I think Obama's willingness to do that vis a vis the inclusion of substance abuse programs, smoking cessation programs, the improvement of community college computer labs, wild fire management, and greening public buildings,etc.. will all contribute to slowly maneuvering the gigantic ship of state through these very alarming times.

[earth mom]

13. On Good Morning America this morning they said that 18 Billion amounts to $2600

for every person in the country.

That's $7800 for our family.

Our family could have used that money right now to replace our heat pump, which we haven't be able to afford to do for the last 3 winters or next winter either.


Which is why I am PISSED that our hard earned tax money is going to a privileged handful of greedy gawd damn people on Wall Street so that they can buy expensive cars and luxury items while we're freezing our asses off using a wood stove that doesn't heat the entire house!

I'm sure those bastards think we should be grateful that we even have a house while they live like fucking kings! :grr:

[ipfilter]

16. I come up with $60

18 Billion dollars divided by 300 Million people = 60

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=18+billion+divided+by+300+million&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=18+billion+divided+by+300+million&fp=Rhq7p-mUk-o

[endarkenment]

17. Yes but those are just numbers

We have us some TALKING POINTS and they sound much better! BOY AM I ANGRY! So what if the numbers, if reality, is completely different than what MY TV TOLD ME SO?

[earth mom]

23. If you aren't angry by this massive theft by Wall Street & Bankers then you aren't paying attention.

Or maybe you are one of them. :grr:

Btw, I got the figure wrong it's 800 Billion

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/

(click recently on GMA (more)

"On the Job Front"

[endarkenment]

24. So your proposal for a bailout is to take the 800B and give everyone

a 2500 one time bonus?

[earth mom]

25. Why not? nt

[endarkenment]

28. Why not?

1) almost every state is bankrupt and about to lay off thousands of state workers.
2) we really do need infrastructure investment, as 30 years of neglect has gone way beyond 'starting to show'.
3) unemployment insurance is running out for lots of people.

That is just off the top of my head.

[earth mom]

20. The exact figure is 800 Billion. But do those fuckers really deserve bonuses paid

by all of our sweat and hard work?

I think not.

They do not deserve one fucking dime of MY money.

But hey, feel free to give them as much money as you want.

[Fire1]

19. Manufacturing furniture is but one small fragment of the job

market. There is no BUYING if there are no jobs. A $246m tax break for the film industry - I think this could be better spent, for sure. Smoking cessation activities - No. 75m for security officer training - No. Lead based paint??? I didn't even think lead based paint was even made anymore. Public access computers at Community Colleges? No. Public access computers can be found in public libraries.

[spanone]

21. we know where the money is going....that's more than we've known for 8 years

[Hubert Flottz]

26. How much money did Bush waste spying on us?

How much did it cost him to hang the guy who pissed his daddy off?