"Yes We Can..."

This [blog] is going to be about the current economy situation and the government. Listen back before Barack Obama was elected President, he kept saying the country needed change with both government and its people. Obama was against lobbyists and other corporate sponsors giving into his presidential fund. But what does he do his first month in? Hire lobbyists and take corporate money. And we all know the "Bank Bailout" was just a freaking joke. What did the banks really do with that money? Some went on vacations for their top CEO's others bought planes, boats and other expensive things that have nothing to do with why they really got the bailout money. Our government is stupid, just handing out money without knowing where it is going. All those banks that got money, did NOTHING to help "stimulate the economy", they didn't throw it back into the lenders and customers and they def didn't help anybody get anywhere. So then onto the current Stimulus Package, what is the deal with this? Want to talk about YOUR tax payer dollars being used for personal reasons? Here are some of the Stimulus Package details I got from the Reuters website: my thoughts are in BOLD and RED.

* $120 billion for infrastructure and science including $27.5 billion for highways, $8.4 billion for public transport and $9.3 billion for Amtrak and high-speed rail.

* $7.2 billion to improve access to high-speed Internet in unserved or underserved areas; $4.2 billion for energy efficiency projects at U.S. defense facilities. I'm sorry but what this is going to boil down to is, one company is going to get the "contract" such as Verizon or Comcast and then instead of using that money to lay the lines down to get internet somewhere, a company is just going to pocket that money, then charge customers or the government more money to use the services.

* $6 billion for local clean water projects.

* $6 billion for environmental cleanup of former weapon production and research sites.

* Health spending includes $19 billion to encourage doctors and hospitals to upgrade computers and other technology to share patient information. We all know that "most" hospitals are private and make enough money as it is. $19 billion wasted if it goes to the wrong hospitals.

* $1 billion for wellness and prevention programs. Listen we all know what this is, Welfare and Prevention services like teen mothers.

* $1.1 billion for studies on the cost effectiveness of various treatments. Tell me if you agree with this, wasting money on studying how not to waste money. Link the $1.1 Billion with Cost Effectiveness, yeah pretty sure that doesn't make sense.

* $10 billion for biomedical research such as cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease and to improve facilities at the National Institutes of Health. Listen I'm all for cures and living longer don't get me wrong, but there has been ENOUGH money dumped into diseases and Cancer foundations. If they don't have a cure now, lets face it, there will never be one.

* Some $21 billion to help workers who lose their jobs maintain employer-provided health insurance through the COBRA program, a federal law that allows workers to temporarily maintain coverage at 102 percent of the cost. The bill provides a 65 percent subsidy for up to nine months. My father had COBRA through the Police Department in our town. You want to know how much it was just for me to be under his plan? Remember this is just my per month cost, not my mothers or my fathers, around $850 a month; just for me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Is COBRA insane? No wonder the government has to sink $21 BILLION dollars to pay for it. I want people to have insurance, but seriously, we can do A LOT better than paying $850 dollars a month for it.

* Some $53.6 billion for a stabilization fund to help cash-strapped states plug holes in their budgets. Most of the money is to be used to avoid education cutbacks and layoffs but a portion is available for school modernization. Finally, a stimulus idea that actually makes sense. Although this also could be a problem if they give it to schools that make to much money like ours does with $26 million a year.

* $13 billion to help disadvantaged students.

* $12.2 billion for the education of disabled children.

* Energy spending includes $4.5 billion to increase the energy efficiency of federal buildings. Pretty sure this could be included with the first one. But who am I?

* $11 billion to modernize the electric grid and upgrade technology so customers can instantly see the price of the power they are buying. For technology reasons and science, this one is pretty awesome, but only in technology terms, the price however is not.

* $3.4 billion for fossil energy research and development. This one is pointless. WE KNOW HOW to steal the precious energy from the earth, that is becoming non-existent, why don't they use this money to research energy that doesn't strain the earth?

* $5 billion for weatherization assistance.

* $6.3 billion for energy efficiency conservation grants.

* $6 billion for loan guarantees for wind and solar projects. Good if it actually works or people approve of the giant wind farms. But with anal local government, will this actually work out?

* Aid for poor families includes $19.9 billion in additional food stamp assistance. The aid is increased by 13.6 percent. Everybody has to eat, but this is another reason we are in this situation from the get-go. If the government made people get jobs or offered a public works project, that would create jobs and "stimulate the economy" we wouldn't have to worry about feeding people and wasting more money.

Now remember these are just a PORTION of what is in the total package, but as you can see some of these are just useless, get prepared for higher taxes and a more crappy economy. I wouldn't be surprised if the stock market crashes after this package gets "approved."