The following post is a humorous look at the pork that was stuffed into the Hurricane Sandy bill. Can't we just get a clean bill relating ONLY to the subject matter? No wonder we have such problems, every bill is stuffed with goodies for other constituencies.
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Conservative Tom
By Tom Purcell
Published: Saturday, December 29, 2012, 8:04 p.m.Updated: Saturday, December 29, 2012
Read more: http://triblive.com/opinion/tompurcell/3201397-74/purcell-deep-mole#ixzz2GeFEVJMk
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Tell us your opinion of this or any other item that has upset you in the past 39 years!
Conservative Tom
Hurricane Sandy pork
By Tom Purcell
Published: Saturday, December 29, 2012, 8:04 p.m.Updated: Saturday, December 29, 2012
Many news outlets are reporting that President Obama‘s proposed $60.4 billion federal aid bill for Hurricane Sandy victims is packed with pork. I contacted my White House insider, Deep Mole, to get some answers.
Purcell: Isn‘t this another example of reckless politicians exploiting an emergency to fund pet projects and pork?
Deep Mole: Pet projects? Pork? There is no pork in the president‘s proposal.
Purcell: You‘re nuts. As this bill worked its way through the Senate before Christmas, Democrats slipped in all kinds of non-emergency goodies. Then they offered more goodies to Republicans to win their support.
Deep Mole: Goodies?
Purcell: Why does the bill include $2 million to repair roof damage at Smithsonian buildings in Washington, D.C.?
Deep Mole: The Smithsonian is a national treasure that Sandy victims may one day visit. We must make sure they are not traumatized by leaky museum roofs!
Purcell: Nice try, my friend. Why does the emergency bill include $336 million for Amtrak-related expenses?
Deep Mole: Amtrak is a common mode of transportation for New York residents to travel to Washington and go to the Smithsonian. We must make sure Sandy victims are not traumatized by broken-down trains.
Purcell: You are clever. Then explain why the emergency bill includes $8 million to buy new cars for federal agencies.
Deep Mole: Many federal agencies are assisting Sandy victims. They need new cars from government-owned General Motors to drive to the areas where government services are most needed.
Purcell: You‘re good. Then explain why the bill includes $150 million for fisheries in Mississippi and Alaska.
Deep Mole: Hurricane victims are known to work very hard cleaning up their messy homes and burning excess calories. It is essential they have access to high-protein American fish!
Purcell: Then explain how $4 million for repairs at the Kennedy Space Center has anything to do with a hurricane in the Northeast.
Deep Mole: The John F. Kennedy Space Center has launched many historic flights into space, bringing inspiration and hope to millions of Americans. Aren‘t inspiration and hope what Sandy victims need most?
Purcell: Not bad, my friend, but this waste is yet another example of our politicians “not letting a good crisis go to waste.” Our country has almost $16.3 trillion in debt. We are accumulating additional debt at the rate of $150 million an hour — yet the gravy train keeps rolling. Our political leaders are out of control.
Deep Mole: They are?
Purcell: Yes, the Taxpayers for Common Sense explain that the federal government has established a clear definition of what an “emergency” is to determine which incidents or events are worthy of federal relief. Emergency spending should only support something that is necessary, sudden, urgent, unforeseen and not permanent. Those are the rules.
Deep Mole: Rules? The Senate has not passed a budget in more than three years. There are no longer any rules. In our republic the only thing that can stop out-of-control politicians from spending recklessly are the voters — and a majority of them no longer care about what we waste money on, so long as they get their cut.
Purcell: Well, if the pork-laden version of the Sandy bill passes the Senate, the only hope is that the Republican House will do its job and strip out the waste. It is called checks and balances.
Deep Mole: So naive. If Republicans in the House do anything to hold up the bill, the president will tar them for withholding assistance to the victims of Sandy and the media will saturate the airwaves with images of the obliteration Sandy caused. Dumb Republicans can‘t win for losing.
Tom Purcell, a freelance writer, lives in Library. Visit him on the web at TomPurcell.com. E-mail him at:Tom@TomPurcell.com
Read more: http://triblive.com/opinion/tompurcell/3201397-74/purcell-deep-mole#ixzz2GeFEVJMk
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As we head over the fiscal cliff, I heard today that the "sticking point" in their negotiations is now how far they will "kick the can down the road" on the sequester that they all voted for last year.
ReplyDelete--David
Putting it in perspective…
ReplyDelete"The Senate bill is considerably less than the $82 billion in aid requested by New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the states that bore the brunt of damage from the storm.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, was in Washington this month, lobbying lawmakers for the larger amount.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund now has less than $5 billion available.
The damage to New York and New Jersey coastal areas was on a scale not seen since Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast and flooded New Orleans in 2005. Two weeks after that storm hit, Congress approved $62.3 billion in emergency appropriations."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/sandy-aid-bill-senate_n_2378457.html
Do you realize what percentage of the Senate appropriation all the "pork" this guy lists amounts to? It is 0.0083%! Some of this is good infrastructure spending to put unemployed people back to work, paying taxes instead of collecting unemployment. Yes, I know that Tea Party people somehow believe "government can't create jobs." They are obviously wrong, but no matter. Go ahead and strip out the 0.0083% and pass the bill. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Estimates are that damage from the hurricane was $100 billion.
--David
You miss the entire point--why should there be any spending not related to the hurricane?
DeleteGovernment has NEVER created jobs, it does not employ the unemployed--only business does that!
No, you miss my point. If there are good infrastructure projects in there, that will help the economy and get people working again. I'll take a jobs bill in any form it comes at this point. My other point is that this is a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of the appropriation, so the House should act quickly on it in January. However, with THIS House, don't hold your breath.
ReplyDeleteThe government creates jobs both directly and indirectly. They create jobs directly whenever public employees are hired. Government creates jobs indirectly, for example, when construction companies hire new workers when they are awarded infrastructure projects rebuilding roads, bridges, buildings, etc. damaged in the hurricane. Government pays the businesses to hire the workers to do the jobs. That is how all the roads, bridges, public schools, etc. got built in the first place. This is such an obvious fact that it always amazes me to hear "government does not create jobs."
--David
"The CBO determined Tuesday that the package, hammered out late Monday evening by Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would — over the next decade — come with a $3.9 trillion price tag."
ReplyDeletehttp://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/economy/275095-cbo-fiscal-cliff-deal-carries-4-trillion-price-tag
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They are always happy to cut taxes, but when it comes to cutting spending, they kicked the sequester down the road for two months. What then? Line up and kick it again? This is why Congress gets an 11% approval rating.
Cannot disagree. Spending is the problem not income. Cut spending first. But they are so chicken hearted that they will not do that!
DeleteHere is what we should be talking about: Boehner just pulled the entire hurricane relief Senate bill off the floor of the House. Just to concede your point for a moment, why not strip out the 0.0083% of the non-hurricane infrastructure and pass the bill? This is insane. It is not a "conservative" vs. "liberal" issue. The governor of New Jersey (Chris Christie) is a leader in the Republican Party and actively worked to get this passed (as did governors of other affected states). This will be the first time in history that we have had a national disaster of $100 billion that Congress has done nothing to help rebuild. The states don't have the funds to do this alone. Furthermore, the infrastructure building will put people back to work and help the economy AND the budget deficit. This is disgraceful. It is another reason why this Congress has an 11% public approval.
ReplyDelete--David
I have not heard why he pulled the bill, could it be the insane, not effected area, spending? Or is it something else. I have not heard.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that we need to help those effected by the hurricane, so pulling the "garbage" out of the bill would be a good idea.
When you find the rationale, please let us know.
>"Cannot disagree. Spending is the problem not income. Cut spending first. But they are so chicken hearted that they will not do that!"
ReplyDeleteWait a minute. Didn't you tell me that you would not support the sequester?
Also, you missed the point about CBO. They calculated that the deal done yesterday INCREASES the deficit by $3.9 trillion -- not through spending increases, but by $3.9 trillion in TAX CUTS.
We will never get rid of this deficit just by cutting spending. We need to raise taxes as percentage of GDP by around 3% and cut spending by 3% to get them both balanced at around 20% of GDP. That is the historical level where the economy functions best.
-David
The point about the CBO makes no sense. How can the deficit go up by 3.9 trillion when the taxes are going up by 2% on all salaries (FICA), 1% for medicare and 1% for Obama Care premiums UNDER THE AGREEMENT REACHED!!
ReplyDeleteIf you are right, which I would never doubt, the taxes needed go up by 6%.
Those numbers are all included in the CBO calculation. The bulk of the $3.9 trillion is from extending the Bush tax cuts to 99% of tax-payers. The other thing they did was eliminate the so-called "alternative minimum tax." There are other tax credits, etc. in there also. None of this was in the CBO baseline because they were set by law to expire. Well, no more. Santa Claus has arrived on cue and permanently cut taxes by $3.9 trillion without a dime in spending cuts.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't mean that we must now increase revenue as percentage of GDP by 6% instead of 3%. It was as 16-17% on December 31, 2012 and was still at that level on January 1, 2013. CBO is just telling us the impact on federal revenue if Congress and Obama had not done this "fiscal cliff" deal to extend the Bush tax rates, etc.
--David
David, I do not follow. Taxes for all working people in this country went up on January 1. FICA went up 2%, Medicare 1% and Obama tax 2%-3%. The 1%ers did get an increase of 3% but it will be meaningless as they have the way to shelter income.
ReplyDeleteThe taxes that Buffet pays will be the same. The same goes for Hollywood stars, as they got a special deal.
The fiscal cliff was a scam on the public and did not do anything positive and yes, it did not cut a dollar of spending.
As I said, all that is taken into account in the CBO calculation. The taxes that increased are offset by the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on 99%, elimination of the alternative minium tax, and other tax credits they did in the fiscal cliff deal. The tax effect of all these changes in the law adds up to a net $3.9 trillion TAX CUT over the next 10 years relative to baseline (i.e., what would have happened if they had done nothing on January 1). They did this without any cuts in spending. As usual, they play Santa Claus with tax cuts as if borrowing trillions to make up the difference doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, Buffet will have a tax increase on all income above $400,000. For those in the $400K+ bracket, the incremental revenue increase (compared to Bush rates) is only $600 billion over 10 years. That's not enough to close the deficit gap. So, if they ever get serious in Congress about getting revenue back to 20% of GDP, they are going to have to do more with tax expenditures, especially loopholes like "carried interest" for hedge fund managers. Buffet makes a ton of money on that sweet deal. Of course, none of this would be necessary if they had the guts to allow the sequester to kick in.
--David
Kurgman recommends minting the $1 trillion platinum coin that we were discussing a few weeks ago…
ReplyDeletehttp://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/be-ready-to-mint-that-coin/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto
This is an Obama conspiracy theory that actually has a non-zero chance of happening if the government shutdown were to last more than a month.
--David