Ron Paul's take on the upcoming "stimulus"

[Guest bang-flash]

http://www.house.gov/apps/blog/tx14_paul/090126_2631.shtml

Texas Straight Talk

A weekly column

Stimulus for Who?

This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is déjà vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There a many red flags that I have found in this bill.

At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.

To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal “medical privacy†rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.

$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.

$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to “faith-and-community†based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.

Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into “green jobsâ€. $200 million to “encourage†electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can’t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for “research in potentially revolutionary technologies†in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.

This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.

There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.

[oldogy]

Welcome to the Un-united Socialist States of America.

ray, the oldogy

[Guest rlrm777]

And there's another several hundred million for Family Planning clinics. Condoms and abortion.

Pelosi says that lower birthrates are an economic stimulus. I have a better, cheaper way to accomplish this.

<a href="http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b347/rlrm777/?action=view&current=images.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b347/rlrm777/images.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

If every woman of childbearing age would print this picture, and wear it as a mask at bedtime, the birthrate would plummet!

Edited January 27, 2009 by rlrm777

[Bigiron]

OMG, I looked at that picture, now I wanna puke.

[Guest jackdog]

And this from the gentleman that some referred to as a nut case, the media boycotted and his supporters where ridiculed. It seems to me that this country is far beyond straightening itself out via the election process. Either we go back to our original form of government(A Republic) and adhere to what the founding fathers envisioned or we perish as a nation. It is time for loyal Americans to quit ***** footing around and take back this nation. The other option is to die a slow death of indentured servitude. Gentlemen and ladies the choice is your to make. Stand up, give up or hide your heads in the sand. Have a nice day

[Guest nofearracer]

Well said Jack Dog:up:

[frontier737]

With Timothy F. Geithner as the new Secretary of the Treasury what problems can possible come up?

I mean the man is a financial guru after all... forget about the not paying tax thing.

[NuTcAsE]

And this from the gentleman that some referred to as a nut case, the media boycotted and his supporters where ridiculed. It seems to me that this country is far beyond straightening itself out via the election process. Either we go back to our original form of government(A Republic) and adhere to what the founding fathers envisioned or we perish as a nation. It is time for loyal Americans to quit ***** footing around and take back this nation. The other option is to die a slow death of indentured servitude. Gentlemen and ladies the choice is your to make. Stand up, give up or hide your heads in the sand. Have a nice day

I agree!!

[Guest jackdog]

With Timothy F. Geithner as the new Secretary of the Treasury what problems can possible come up?

I mean the man is a financial guru after all... forget about the not paying tax thing.

well lets see he can't pay is taxes.

He was president of the NY fed when all these companies were gambling with stocks and real estate. Oh yeah this piece of **** is a real winner. So wheres all the change we were hearing about