Saturday, February 21, 2009

How About We Call You On It, Mr Obama!

"If a federal agency proposes a project that will waste that money, I will not hesitate to call them out on it and put a stop to it," Obama told the mayors, who were gathered in the White House. "And I want everybody here to be on notice ... if a local government does the same. I will call them out on it and use the full power of my office and our administration to stop it." [link]

Wonderful rhetoric in this instance, let's sound tough, but not mean a damn thing about it. If you truly are going to call out federal agencies for wasting money how about actually taking a look at some of the measures in your so called "stimulus law":

$24 million for USDA buildings and rent
$176 million for renovating Agricultural Research Service buildings
$290 million for flood prevention activities
$50 million for watershed rehabilitation
$1.4 billion for wastewater disposal programs
$295 million for administrative expenses associated with food stamp program
$1 billion for the 2010 Census
$200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
$650 million for the DTV converter box coupon program
$360 million for construction of NIST buildings
$830 million for NOAA research and facilities
$2 billion for Byrne JAG program
$10 million to combat Mexican gunrunners
$125 million for rural communities to combat drug crimes
$1 billion for the COPS program
$1 billion for NASA
$300 million to purchase scientific instruments for colleges and museums
$400 million for equipment and facilities at the NSF
$3.7 billion to conduct "green" renovations on military bases
$375 million for Mississippi River projects
$10 million for urban canals
$5 billion for weatherizing buildings
$2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars
$3.4 billion for fossil energy research (possibly including an earmark for FutureGen)
$5.1 billion for environmental cleanup around military bases
$5.5 billion for "green" federal buildings
$300 million for "green" cars for federal employees
$20 million for IT upgrades at the Small Business Administration
$200 million to design and furnish DHS headquarters
$98 million earmark for a polar icebreaker
$210 million for State and local fire stations
$125 million to restore trails and abandoned mines
$146 million for trail maintenance at National Park Service sites
$140 million for volcano monitoring systems
$600 million for the EPA Superfund environmental cleanup program
$200 million to clean up leaking underground storage tanks
$500 million for forest health and wildfire prevention
$25 million for the Smithsonian Institution
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$1.2 billion for "youth activities" (for "youth" up to 24 years old)
$500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD
$1 billion for Head Start
$32 million for home-delivered nutrition services
$160 million for volunteer programs at the Corporation for National and Community Service
$500 million earmark for the SSA National Computer Center in MD
$220 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico
$8 billion for high-speed railway (including an earmark for Harry Reid's LA to Las Vegas MagLev)
$1.3 billion for Amtrak


[link for source] & here

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