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Sunday, February 08, 2009

News Items That Melt My Hard Drive
Posted by jurassicpork | 11:48 AM

In case you hadn't seen this on CNN's website yesterday, below is a comprehensive list of all the things that were cut out of the Senate version of the stimulus bill (I'd highly recommend following the links this time since they explain what exactly got cut and who exactly will suffer):

Partially cut:

• $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings (original bill $7 billion)

• $75 million from Smithsonian (original bill $150 million)

• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)

• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)

• $100 million from law enforcement wireless (original bill $200 million)

• $300 million from federal fleet of hybrid vehicles (original bill $600 million)

• $100 million from FBI construction (original bill $400 million)

Fully eliminated

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $122 million for new Coast Guard polar icebreaker/cutters

• $100 million for Farm Service Agency modernization

• $50 million for CSERES research

• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation

• $30 million for SD salaries

• $100 for distance learning

• $98 million for school nutrition

• $50 million for aquaculture

• $2 billion for broadband (Can anyone say "infrastructure of the 21st century?)

• $100 million for NIST

• $50 million for detention trustee

• $25 million for Marshalls Construction

• $300 million for federal prisons

• $300 million for BYRNE Formula

• $140 million for BYRNE Competitive

• $10 million state and local law enforcement

• $50 million for NASA

• $50 million for aeronautics

• $50 million for exploration

• $50 million for Cross Agency Support

• $200 million for National Science Foundation

• $100 million for science

• $1 billion for Energy Loan Guarantees

• $4.5 billion for GSA

• $89 million GSA operations

• $50 million from DHS

• $200 million TSA

• $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use

• $25 million for Fish and Wildlife

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $20 million for working capital fund

• $165 million for Forest Service capital improvement

• $90 million for State and Private Wildlife Fire Management

• $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start

• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity

• $2 billion for HIT Grants

• $600 million for Title I (NCLB)

• $16 billion for school construction

• $3.5 billion for higher education construction

• $1.25 billion for project based rental

• $2.25 for Neighborhood Stabilization

• $1.2 billion for retrofitting Project 8 housing

• $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization (includes $7.5 billion of state incentive grants)

Trillions for the Iraq war, Wall Street and tax cuts for the already bloated? Priceless.

Fuck getting a handle on crime, fuck overhauling the criminal justice system, fuck the sick and poor, fuck our children, fuck the farmers, fuck the environment, fuck science, fuck national security, essentially fuck any and every program and foundation dedicated to anything remotely akin to a progressive or even a pragmatic cause. The minority, I repeat, the minority Republican party screamed their heads off demanding this "pork" got hacked out of the bill. The Democrats caved in to them because they cannot do shit unless they have a 60% majority in the Senate. Vote them out. Vote their fat bipartisan asses out of Congress at the earliest available opportunity before they kill you in one way or another.

Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman gives his thoughts on the "compromise" in "Conscience of a Liberal."
6 comments
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6 Comments:
Blogger Melina said...
As I was saying in the weather thread, but which belongs here, I am disgusted by this and I really think its time for this to be explained to the American people on TV in prime time in excruciating detail...or pictures and circles and arrows...whatever works. But really, the politicians who voted against this unless it contained these cuts should be called out specifically for those of us who dont want to read the roll, and ...maybe we can all try to understand that the politicians who wanted this stimulus package cut are arguing theory based on the way things happened in the past, when no one can say this situation is a mirror of or even sorta like those times in the past that they cite!
Those people should answer to WHY they think its OK to throw money that so effects the middle and lower classes under the bus while retaining tax cuts!...And theory just doesnt cut it! because they are wrong...and usually what they cite is incorrect and watered down anyway. There is no comparison!

So, with the knowledge that things as the conservatives have made them for 8 years not worked, I cant understand why anyone stands for allowing the conservative voice into this in the name of bipartisan cooperation.
Krugman and many other respected economists says that this package should be larger, and that the cuts make it less likely to work...so why??

I hope that Obama has something concrete to say when he speaks on TV about it, because this bipartisan friendliness thing is wearing thin before we even get to day 30!
2/8/09, 12:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Jill, Melina,
Something about "making government small enough to be drowned in a bathtub" comes to mind as does "starving the beast".
Looks like they are killing some of the programs that _work_. But then if your belief is that government doesn't work, can never work, and shouldn't even try.....
It all makes perfect sense. Giving not quite enough -- but still way too much -- money to the Wall Street pockets doesn't alter the size of government at all. Giving it to states, or [cries of anguish!] to the _people_ might alter the balance of power away from their favor.....
2/8/09, 2:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
The horror, the horror.

The only thing that's going to save us is gonna be the 2010 elections.

Every Republican dirtbag who voted to kill those programs must to be voted out of office. For the United States to survive, the Republican party needs to be extinct.

Let's hope we make it to 2010.
2/8/09, 3:30 PM  
Blogger Jill said...
How about every Democratic dirtbag who lacks the balls to tell the Republicans, "Go ahead. Filibuster. I dare you" get a nice primary challenge from a real progressive who isn't owned by the banking and insurance industries?

This 60 votes thing is bullshit. It exists because of the threat of filibuster. Do you mean to tell me that the Democrats can't just point at a Republican filibuster and scream "obstructionist!" too?

Sorry, but the Dems get no free pass on this one. They won the November election, but no one told them. Either that or they are owned by the same people.
2/8/09, 4:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Damn! It's just infuriating.
2/8/09, 5:03 PM  
Blogger Rhode Island Rules said...
The Republicans want no money for internet access because the internet is what helped do them in this election. They are such dinosaurs that they were taken by surprise that their lies could be refuted in seconds with news clips and video on the internet.

They who control the media, control the masses. The Repukes currently control the media....except the internet and they are trying desperately to shut it down. The one thing that makes the world smaller and gives us a better understanding that we are more similar than different. But then they can't wield their fear mongering techniques to keep us apart and afraid. There's no money or power for them in that shit.
2/8/09, 7:20 PM  
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