Stimulus or Aesop's Famous Fable

Can someone tell me how these appropriations by the Democrats will "stimulate" the economy? If you want to know why the new Republican National Chairman Michael Steele recommends all Republicans reject the package read this list:

$650 million for coupons to help people make the switch to digital TV

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

$150 million for the Smithsonian Institution

$50 million for the National Cemetery Administration's monument and memorial repairs

$800 million for Amtrak, the country's railroad system

$2 billion for child-care subsidies

$400 million for global warming research

$100 million for reducing the danger of lead paint in homes

$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects

$50 million for NASA facilities that may have been harmed by natural disaster

$200 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes

$650 million for the U.S. Forest Service to remove fish passage barriers, forest improvement and watershed enhancement projects

$1.5 million for a National Institute of Health/Institute of Medicine report to Congress

$50.6 million for services for older blind individuals

$400 million for the Social Security Administration's new National Computer Center

$325 million for Academic Achievement Awards

$70 million for programs to help people quit smoking

$75 million for a super-computer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


The stimulus bill, as is, includes tens of millions of dollars that critics claim will do little or nothing to generate or preserve permanent jobs. Projects like wind power and solar energy create permanent jobs directly tied to the ongoing maintenance of those facilities.

I see nothing on this list to get banks back to lending again so the real estate market recovers, car dealers, not automakers, to sell cars, extensive road projects that will open new areas for industrial development, extensive bridge and road repairs to keep the people traveling in an efficent manner to work, etc.

This bill is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Everyone is hurting, losing jobs, losing homes, and losing families. The President is making an aggresive sales pitch on a bill that needs much more scrutiny. It will be paid for with borrowed funds and could swell an already mammoth $1.2 trillion deficit forecast for this year to more than $2 trillion. I can't believe people put down George Bush for record deficits and Barack Obama is getting a free pass spending on nonsense.