What's in it for Me?
That's the current mode of thought, isn't it? The government is throwing money around like they have it. Now, it's $4,500.00 to buy a new fuel efficient car if you trade in your old gas guzzler. There's even a catchy title, "
Cash for Clunkers." My little gas sipper will be two in November. I dumped my minivan for it. It was either that, or dump around $5,000.00 into repairs on the old rust heap - uh - I mean, clunker. Being the frugal (cheap) guy that I am, I had to figure out what would pay better in the long run. Had I known this was coming, I might have made a different decision.
That government check would have covered over one third of the cost of my bare bones GM. I bought the cheapest one I could find. It's all manual. You even have to roll the windows up and down by hand. I thought the salesman was kidding when he told me that. My kids had never even been in a car that didn't have automatic windows. It was a novelty for days and a story to tell their friends for months.
My father, though, is tickled pink. He's retired, his savings took a big hit like everyone else's but he wants a new car to replace his '98 Buick with over 100,000 miles on it. He's not the only one salivating over this example of government largesse. Isn't that nice of our government, handing out money like that so that people can buy the new cars the government wants them to buy? And who am I to complain? It's not my money their going to be handing out. That's long gone. They're giving my children's and grandchildren's cash.
Is anyone complaining about government turned into Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, and Easter Bunny all rolled into one? Only those humorless conservatives. They have this weird idea that people should earn their living. Talk about reactionary. Don't they get it? A new day is dawning. All we, the people have to do now, is hold out our hands and say, "gimme." The nice government worker person will oblige our every whim . . . until that person decides that work is strictly for suckers and quits to stand in the handout line with the rest of us progressive thinkers.
So who is going to do the work, when it becomes so much easier to just not work. I'm hearing stories of able-bodied people who have lost their jobs, and as hard as it may be for you to believe, due to extended unemployment benefits, they're not looking for another job. They're tired of working. They know that Obama will provide. The states feel that way. The severely debt-ridden state of Michigan is looking to grab a few billion in
stimulus funds. And that will make everything all better and insure that Governor Granholm gets reelected. (I heard that Obama blessed the funds going to blue states so that Democrats will keep their positions.)
Schools are also looking to the feds for more money, and according to
Instructor magazine, they're looking for (surprise) "Stimulus" cash. It's not that school districts are being selfish, they just want to save teachers' jobs so that our students can continue to get the world-class education that
American public schools have been providing for generations. Of course, from my own experience as a public school teacher, I've seen horrendous amounts of taxpayer money wasted in various ways. But that's another post.
The aim here is to get money from the government now, before that money goes to someone else, and everyone points and laughs at you for being the last doofus on the block actually holding a job.
Labels: Cash for Clunkers, education, Obama, Stimulus package
Oh, the Irony
The
Detroit Free Press has been breathlessly awaiting the latest stimulus plan. But so is everyone else who will be able to nose their way up to the government trough and grab some of that pork. And the Democrats are desperate for it so they can begin the payback of the groups that helped them attain their majority. It's pander city.
But there was also
this article.
The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says.
The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year's overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms.
The findings added to the frustrations of lawmakers already wary of the $700 billion rescue plan, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Congress approved the plan last fall, but members of both parties criticized spending decisions by the Bush administration and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Now, as I recall, at the time, there had to be a bailout now, NOW, DO YOU HEAR ME? NOW! The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were poised to rend our country asunder if there wasn't bipartisan support to rescue AIG and other financial institutions deemed too big to fail. There was no time to stop and read the fine print. There wasn't even time to figure out if this whole bailout thing was even a good idea, or as Michelle Malkin refers to it, "
a crap sandwich."
So why is it all Bush's fault? Oh, that's right, because he's Bush. And for the next four to (God forbid) eight years, everything that goes wrong due to Obama's socialist-inspired policies will be blamed on Bush.
And now, there is another crap sandwich being shoved down our throat whether we like it or not because, remember those four horsemen? Well, they're still there, hunched behind Al Gore's private jet ready to pounce if Republican senators don't submit to Democrat's fearmongering - uh, I mean - if they don't return to the bipartisan spirit that made this country great. And if nobody bothers to actually read where this almost $900,000,000,000 is going. Because as we find out from the
National Review, here's where some of the money is scheduled to be doled out:
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”
and,
$89 billion for Medicaid
$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for food stamps
and
$2 billion for renewable-energy research ($400 million for global-warming research)
$2 billion for a “clean coal” power plant in Illinois
$6.2 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program
$3.5 billion for energy-efficiency and conservation block grants
$3.4 billion for the State Energy Program
$200 million for state and local electric-transport projects
$300 million for energy-efficient-appliance rebate programs
$400 million for hybrid cars for state and local governments
$1 billion for the manufacturing of advanced batteries
$1.5 billion for green-technology loan guarantees
$8 billion for innovative-technology loan-guarantee program
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$4.5 billion for electricity grid
And there's more.
Read it all and weep. Or contact your senators.
Labels: George Bush, Obama, Stimulus package
CHALLAH AKBAR
