800 Billion Reasons To Be Worried

So who gets the money from the Porkapalooza … Reason on line … did the homework. Ughhh. Make sure you read it all … but here’s a sample.

1. Billions of dollars in spending exclusively devoted to benefit federal employees.

  • $5.5 billion for making federal buildings “green” (including $448 million for the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters)
  • $198 million to design and furnish the DHS headquarters
  • $200 million for workplace safety in Department of Agriculture facilities
  • $75 million for the Smithsonian Institution
  • $300 million more for hybrid and electric cars for federal employees (see below) (oh there’s more)

2. Wasteful spending that is not directly targeted at federal employees:Arguably the best item in the Senate bill is a $1,500 tax credit to anyone that purchases “neighborhood electric vehicles”—also known as golf carts. The total estimated cost of that giveback is $300 million. Purchasers of motorcycles and three-wheelers shouldn’t despair, however, as there are benefits available for them, too. (Oh there’s more)

3. Tax cuts and tax breaks that don’t deliver anything close to real reform.

Make sure you read the whole thing.

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

5 Comments

  1. davis on February 10, 2009 at 6:52 pm

    Add those up and they come to $6.3B, less than 1% of the $800B. So what tax cuts would be real reform? The cuts to corporations who took us to the cleaners these last few years? What do you like better, to be fleeced by the tax man or by the captains of industry and commerce who have been lining their pockets with the shareholder money?
    We need a seance and bring Ronald Reagan back to fix this mess, only he knows how to do it.



    • Wayne SW on February 11, 2009 at 1:47 pm

      The Detroit Education system failures continue to sink to new levels.?

      “captains of industry and commerce who have been lining their pockets with the shareholder money”

      Oh my.? Shareholders do NOT pay any salaries or bonus money to any employees of any company.? Shareholders own shares of the public traded? corporation, as an investment.? I have been a shareholder of corporations for decades, and I assure that I never for a second gave any corp.? employee any money.
      ?



  2. Dimsdale on February 11, 2009 at 12:07 am

    So, my friend, is it your plan to do nothing?? I am convinced that the inept crew in Washington, of both parties, have brung us to this dance.? Their manipulation of the banking laws, which were working pretty well until Carter started monkeying with them, the Fannie and Freddie debacle, and the social engineering of the liberal socialists have done more damage than all the Madoffs in the business world.? A $50 billion scam seems like a drop in the bucket now, doesn’t it?

    When you add the feeding frenzy of the now defunct housing market, combined with last summer’s fuel price nightmare, you have a recipe for disaster that is only going to be made worse by the crackpot schemes of Obama’s socialized medicine and the business killing antics of the global “warming” Goreon crackpots.

    Yes indeed, we need a reincarnation of Reagan.? And quickly!



  3. davis on February 11, 2009 at 6:43 am

    And what is the Reagan think-alike going to do? Cut taxes the way Bush did? What did that get us: a few filthy richer people, 2 wars on the credit card and a huge rise in the national debt. Plus, an economy at the brink of collapse ( at least it looks/feels like it to me).



  4. davis on February 12, 2009 at 6:24 am

    Excellent analysis Wayne. Like the Boards and the management team are not involved. They decide how and how much gets dispersed from the coffer of the company. That is not money that shareholders do not have a claim on? Are you happy that CEOs et al. have been taking TARP money to pay themselves bonuses? Whose money is in the TARP?



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