The Johnson County bloggers at Red County have a nice list posted of what our children and grandchildren will be paying for in the years to come.
I’ll share some of my favorites:
- $1 billion for NASA
- $2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars
- $650 million for the digital TV converter box coupon program (because reality TV spurs the economy)
- $3.7 billion to conduct “green” renovations on military bases (I thought they already wore camo?)
- $1 billion for the 2010 Census (to count just over 305 million people)
- $3.4 billion for fossil energy research (Remember folks, it’s the green Democrats that voted for that…)
- $98 million earmarked for a polar icebreaker (this one just puzzles me, couldn’t we just wait for ‘em to melt?)
- $500 million for forest health and wildfire prevention
- $25 million for the Smithsonian Institution
- $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
Finally, my ultimate favorite two:
- $10 million for urban canals
- $290 million for flood prevention
If I have to explain why that’s funny, we’re in real trouble.
Nostimulus.com surpassed half a million signatures in the waning hours of the spendulus debate, but it made no difference to the Democrats or three “moderate” Republican Senators. The site is still up if you just feel a need to sign it. I’m sure AFP will keep ownership of the domain name. I have a feeling this won’t be the last “stimulus.”
During the House and Senate debate I had a nightmarish flashback to the last time a legislative body voted on a massive piece of legislation without reading it.
Of course, everyone by now knows what a cash cow state-owned casinos turned out to be for Kansas. And not allowing legislative oversight in the bill, that was an excellent idea. I can only imagine what American citizens will learn about this spending bill over the next year or two.
U.S. House rules state that all conference committee reports must be made available for 3 calendar days before a vote to allow Representatives to read the bill. The Democrat controlled House passed a special resolution to waive that rule so a vote on the 1100 page bill could be taken not even 24 hours after it’s final draft was made available.
Democrat Reps and Senators must be very fast readers.
I can think of a few high points though. Every Representative and all but three Republican Senators voted against the bill. What a dramatic return to conservative principles. It’s certainly refreshing to see that most of our Republican officials intimately understand what lost them the election and what they need to do to begin to win again.
Imagine if Republicans had acted like Republicans several years ago.
Other Kansas spendulus blog posts:
Kansas Meadowlark – “‘Yes We Can’ Pass $787 Billion ‘Stimulus’ Without Anyone in Congress Reading the Bill”
Red County JoCo – The short list of your grandchildren’s debt
Wichita Liberty – NoStimulus.com Effort Crosses 200,000 Petitions
Wichita Liberty – Tim Phillips of AFP explains NoStimulus.com
StimulusWatch.org – Lists all Kansas Stimulus projects
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