H.R. 1

http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr1_text.pdf

I have been reading through the 647---that's right--- 647 pages of the now infamous "stimulus package". But let's call it what it is---an appropriations bill. When I was younger, I would not have had the patience to get through this thing. I would have said that it is esoterically written and too tedious to go through. I can pretty much say the same now, with one exception---scary though it is----I understand it.

I still don't have the patience to read every word, partially because it makes me so angry, and partially because I recognize legal filler. So I have been going from heading to heading and getting an overview. There are so many holes in this thing that it reads like Swiss cheese.

It is a pity that President Obama, himself a lawyer, did not bring some of that accumen and reputed genius to bear on this document, instead of handing it off to his subordinates to write. As such it is a poor substitute for a successful financial strategy, but then he is not an economist, and it shows. The solution for working people when they are deep in debt is not to try to spend spend spend themselves further into debt in order to rid themselves of the problem.

I think most responsible people seem to recognize that except the Democrats and a few liberal Republicans. The temptation to act quickly, combined with the ability to appropriate funds to fuel political opportunities that have often eluded the Democratic Party in the past has just proved too much.

There is just not enough oversight in this bill. There are far too many gaps between figures allotted and minimum figures supposedly chiselled in stone. Anybody who gets a maximum allotment of appropriation money for some dumb pork program is simply going to figure out a way to spend the rest of the money.

For example, under Subtitle C----Science, for NASA, the document states:For an additional amount for "Science", $400,000,000, of which not less than $250,000,000 shall be solely for the development of the tier 1 set of earth science climate research missions recommended by the National Academies Decadel Survey.

TRANSLATION: Four hundred-million bucks are going to be spent on manmade global warming research by NASA, even though tons of scientists have said that it is bogus, especially since the earth is now in a cooling trend. That might stimulate some people's minds, but it won't stimulate the economy. Oh and science gets several billion more for other research. More stimulation.

That is far from the least of it. If one has the heart to read it. Nancy Pulosi's own district has a $30,000,000 earmark to save an endangered mouse. Golly. I bet that will stimulate the economy.

By contrast, funds allocated to small business loans, the backbone of the economy, and where a hefty portion of funds should be made available to stimulate the economy by creating businesses and jobs, received far less than many other pet projects.

But then, when your aim is a generally socialistic society wherein huge government runs everybody's lives for the "greater good", who needs small business?

This bill is not just selfish, hastily and poorly written---it is shameful.