Remember how Candidate Obama insisted he would cut pork out of the Federal Budget, by going through it, line by line, like a surgeon? Remember how (yesterday) he signed the 1170 page stimulus bill without cracking it open? Well, like a Mexican janitor, I am going to do the job the President won't- go through the stimulus line by line, to see what's what.
TITLE I--AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES
1) $200,000,000 to the Secretary of Agriculture- for laboratory maintenance and modernization, workplace safety, "mission area efficiencies"; has to submit a spending plan within 60 days. Has to be spent by 2010
Stimulus: Probably some contractors will get work out of this, but temporary job creation at best. When the contracts run out, the jobs go away.
2) $23,000,000 for the Inspector General for oversight, and audit of how the money is spent.
Stimulus: You kidding me? Give Agriculture $23 mill so Agriculture can watch how it spends the $200 mill? Zero jobs. Zero sense.
3) $50,000,000 for competitive grants for research into various agricultural issues.
Stimulus: Grants expire in five years; conceivably, some researcher could develop some corn-based substance that would make it rain candy, but otherwise no stimulus.
4) $400,000,000 for loan guarantees, crop insurance, etc. related to farms.
Stimulus: None.
5) $340,000,000 for watershed development and flood prevention.
Stimulus: To be spent by 2010. Very short term construction projects, little real stimulus.
6) $80,000,000 for rural development and salaries.
Stimulus: Must be spent by 2010. Short term at best- probably will be spent giving raises to existing personnel.
Get ready for the big finish for today:
7) 11,472,000,000- that's BILLIONS- for guaranteed and non-guaranteed rural housing loans.
Stimulus: A philosophical question: If making bad loans helped get us in this mess, how will making 10 billion dollars in non-guaranteed loans help us get out? Good for housing industry, but looking at more foreclosures in the future.
NOTE: Anybody see a pattern with the expiration of stimulus dollars so far? Ending right before the 2010 elections?