A list of the pork in the Pork-A-Palooza

Tom Coburn put this list out last week prior to the Senate vote. (Sorry I missed it; just found it today.) I figured I'd let you all see what's being spent where:

"Wasteful and Non-Stimulative Spending in the House-Senate Conference Report (Note: Many of these items are typically debated and funded through the regular budget process. Including these items in an emergency “stimulus” spending bill plays an Enron-style shell game with taxpayer dollars. We’re borrowing from the next generation to avoid tough budget choices today.)

• $8 billion for high-speed railway (including an earmark for an Los Angeles to Las Vegas MagLev)
• $1 billion for the “FutureGen” not-ready-for-primetime near zero emission plant in Illinois
• $53.6 billion for the “state stabilization” slush fund
• $1.3 billion for Amtrak
• $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 (National Institute of Standards and Technology) buildings
• $830 million for NOAA ( National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) research and facilities
• $2 billion for Byrne JAG (Justice Assistance Grant) program
• $10 million to combat Mexican gunrunners
• $125 million for rural communities to combat drug crimes
• $1 billion for the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) 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
• $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 (National Institute of Health) 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 (Social Security Administration) National Computer Center in MD
• $220 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico"

Now, don't get us wrong here. There are a few things above that might be worth spending the money on, bu the vast majority of the crap above is just that -- crap. It's worthless, wasteful spending that will bankrupt future generations. I'd like to remind people of a recent column written by a colleague of ours. His name is Larry Simoneaux and he wrote a timely piece about what it took to make it through hard times. He told the story of his maternal grandmother, and what she had to live through. She was born in 1890, and suffered through a lot at the turn of the century. But he brought up her having to go through the Great Depression.

Her husband died in the early goings of the Depression. She had no job, no income, and three young girls to tend to. What did she do? She did what she had to do to "make do." It's a great story of tenacity and rugged individualism. So what does this have to do with all that spending?

We may all be striving to "make do" now that the government has decided to spend $1 trillion on things that will do little, if anything, to spurn the economy forward. These monkeys in Congress thought they could spend their way out of this instead of tightening the belt on spending, and giving the tax cuts to the public that was needed to actually jump start the economy. But, God forbid the Congress give money back to the people. That would be counter-productive. Congress seems to think that we work for them.

They might want to go back over the history of the founding of this nation. The Founding Fathers believed that the government worked for the people, not the other way around.

Publius II