TARRA was supposed to be a smoking hot stimulating bill, similar to a Baywatch lifeguard. Instead it’s a pork filled pile of sluggish earmarks, similar to the f
at lady that cuts in front of you at Wal-Mart.
I’ve scanned the list in the bill and picked my favorite bits of ridiculous pork and two tax breaks that should have existed a long, long, time ago. If you don’t care for anymore talk about TARRA’s odds and ends, then check out the link at the bottom which includes a graphic illustration of the entire bill. I got most of my figures from various sources, many of which are more specific than the chart. But it is a good one. Without further delay, my list:
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts to support artists: Really? $50 million smackers to help some emo kid draw better? If you can’t make money being an artist, then it’s called a hobby. Where’s the $50 million to support bloggers that only do it part-time and want to go pro in it? Maybe we need a national foundation. How about the National Association of Media Entrepreneurs, NAME?
$500 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs infrastructure projects: This government bureau has 10,000 employees. To do what? I know we did some bad things to Indians, but we don’t need 10,000 people to make up for it.
$1 billion in preparation for the 2010 census: Why haven’t we been budgeting for this for the last decade? We sort of knew it was coming up.
$140 million to the United States Geological Survey: I think they have an important job, but did this really need to be included in a stimulus package?
$1.3 billion for university research facilities: I’m pretty sure my jacked up tuition was supposed to pay for improvements to research facilities (and the salaries for parking enforcement, jerks).
$515 million for wildfire prevention projects: Looks like we’ll see more “Smokey The Bear” commercials.
$290 million to upgrade IT platforms at the State Department: Someone must want 1 million copies of Windows 7 when it comes out.
$70 million for the education of homeless children: Because homeless children are unable to go to school?
$890 million to improve housing for service members: How about you end the wars overseas so we won’t need as many troops and thusly have less to board?
$4.2 billion to repair and modernize Department of Defense facilities: Because already having the largest portion of the normal budget wasn’t enough.
Pay no taxes on the first $2,400 received in unemployment compensation: Why do we tax people that are living off the government?
State sales tax on new cars now a federal income tax deduction: All paid taxes should be tax deductions.
Here is the link to the great graphic the Washington Post put together. Graphical illustration of TARRA
Thanks to Pete for the chart link via Twitter.
Flickr Credit: Dozens
 By The Weakonomist |
The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. |
| Related Websites |
Said,
Said,
I didn’t vote for Obama (nor for McCain), so don’t take this as a defense of The Sainted One or anything. I have some respect for the guy, but I never drank the Kool-Aid.
But.
If you are going to position yourself as some kind of critic of the government, you might first want to make sure you know what you’re criticizing. I know some of the stimulus items sound funny, but if all you’re doing is looking at where the allocations are going and refuse to try to understand the underlying issues, you make yourself look like an idiot.
I know that blogging and laziness are kind of synonymous. I say that, having blogged. But that doesn’t mean they *must* go hand in hand. So do better. Couple of examples:
1. The NEA is about arts, period. Not just giving money to artists, but also encouraging the teaching of the arts in public schools. To make a living as an artist one must first realize that one has artistic talent and then must learn the tricks of the trade to produce art. A kid with talent born into a family with none, who has no money for supplies and doesn’t know what’s possible, is not ever going to have a shot at an art career unless he’s exposed to it at some point in his life. And arts programs are the first to go when schools cut spending. The NEA helps to alleviate that somewhat.
I know there are artists who figured their thing out without the help of public schools. But we all take different paths in life, and what’s obvious to one kid may not be obvious to another simply by virtue of having different backgrounds and influences. So, giving them many different options early in life to learn what’s possible is going to do them more good in the long run.
The NEA also helps build things like theaters and museums for communities that couldn’t otherwise afford them.
http://www.arts.gov/about/Facts/AtAGlance.html
http://www.arts.gov/about/Facts/ArtsLearning.html
By the way, the state of popular music should be a big clue as to what would happen if we left the promulgation of the arts up to the “free market.” Ew?
2. The relationship between the United States and American Indians is a very complex one. There are good arguments for and against the BIA. American Indians themselves often have little regard for the agency because more often than not it is THE ultimate method by which Uncle Sam attempts to destroy Indian culture, since it is no longer politically correct to go on military campaigns against the tribes.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Placing ethical people in the BIA and insisting that they honor treaties and give the tribes what they are due from Uncle Sam would go a long way to repairing some of the ill will between us and them. And frankly? We owe them. We owe them a hell of a lot.
“We did some bad things”… is the understatement of the millenium, frankly. We did the same thing to them that the Nazis did to the Jews, only slower and with fewer machines. Decent people do not behave that way. We are long overdue for behaving decently towards the first Americans. 10,000 people is understaffing as far as I’m concerned.
3. Education of homeless children: Do you have any understanding whatsoever of the issues involved in keeping homeless kids in school? No, I didn’t think so.
4. Military housing: Even if we brought all our guys home and scaled back, military barracks is still in bad shape. It was true in the early nineties, post-Reagan-Bush, and it’s true now. When I was in the Army I lived in barracks that had been condemned as unfit by the Air Force. Even military family housing is pathetic, especially in places like Hawai’i, where it’s even more expensive to live off-post. This is shameful.
5. State tax deductions: It’s another way to reduce the overall tax burden. I thought that was a good thing?
Seriously. I don’t get people. It’s like what I’ve heard from other quarters about how stupid it is that beekeepers were included in the stimulus bill. This was roundly mocked as pork spending.
But think about it.
Bees.
What do bees do?
“Oh, they make honey.” Sure. How do they make honey? They get nectar from flowers and eat it and vomit it back up. What flowers do they visit? All kinds, but especially flowers on food-bearing plants. Why is this important? Because in the process of picking up nectar they also fertilize the flowers. Why is that important? Because that’s how fruit is produced, including culinary veggies such as tomatoes.
And in case you haven’t noticed we’ve been seeing bee dieoffs in disturbingly high numbers. My local university has had to cut back on staffing to investigate the problem because money’s been running dry. They’re a land-grant university. If they don’t have the money for agricultural research, that is a PROBLEM.
But all these yo-yos can do is laugh. Not investigate, not learn, just laugh. And all the other lazy people who read them are going to laugh too, then get mad at the “waste of money,” then complain to their congressmen. Then none of this stuff will get any better.
If you have better ideas, run for office. Meanwhile, stick with what you know, which is apparently how much emo kids suck and not much else. Thanks in advance.