RSS Feed MenuAn internal document obtained by NewMajority on Friday details even more wasteful spending in the now-$1.2 trillion spending bill that the Senate will take up next week.
The bill is so large that only 7 percent will be spent by the end of fiscal 2009. Yet even with this massive spending – if they divvied up and distributed the amount of the bill, it would equal $2,700 for every American man, woman, and child – there is still no aid to avert housing repossessions. Good news though for those who still have their homes: there’s $650 million for digital TV converter coupons in the House bill.
And although only 2.7 percent of the bill is dedicated to small-business tax relief, some small businesses will benefit: The bill offers $150 million in honeybee insurance.
And what a coincidence: America’s top honey-producing state, North Dakota, has two Democratic senators. Don’t look for this measure to be stripped out in conference!
Oneon1isto // Jan 31, 2009 at 12:09 pm
It’s been 1.2 trillion, Moira. That’s the original number plus interest costs on the original 850 and change. Your post makes it seem like the package is growing at a high clip, where in reality we still have the same bill–you’re just finding out more about it. Keep that up by the way. This is sort of off topic, but not. Honey-bee populations are being decimated and no one’s quite sure why. Honey-bee farmers (who raise them not just for the honey but for the work they do in pollination) are being hit hard by this mysterious epidemic. The bad part is that if you lose honeybees, you lose most of your pollinating insects, and that’s bad news for farmers and planters.
Oneon1isto // Jan 31, 2009 at 12:12 pm
…so perhaps the honeybee insurance is to help cope against the honey bee epidemic
JoetheVeep // Jan 31, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Protect our nation’s apiaries. They are our only bulwark against the bee epidemic. (Saw a movie about a bee epidemic once; it wasn’t good.) But I do hope that there’s plenty of dickering and amending before this thing goes to conference. Gives more time to tear it apart. Drip, drip, drip.
Kaz // Jan 31, 2009 at 7:32 pm
The Republican leadership are the worst communicators on the face of the earth. If they only recited two lines repeatedly over the next 2 weeks Obama’s favorable ratings would plummet:
1) “only 7 percent will be spent by the end of fiscal 2009″
2) “the stimulus bill will add $2,700 to the $34,000 of national debt every American man, woman, and child already owes”
Repeat, repeat, repeat until the MSM can no longer ignore you.
JoetheVeep // Jan 31, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Hey, Kaz! Same Kaz? It’s Urquhart. Check out my site: http://joetheveep.blogspot.com. Needs a little update about Joe’s big new Middle Class deal. (this message will self-destruct as soon as the editors come by, because it’s way off topic)
fact based // Feb 1, 2009 at 8:04 am
the cost of fixing the banking system destoyed by the wall steeters who “went on a bender” and then “got a hangover” while the W admin was asleep and then Secy of Treas Goldman Sachs kicked the can down the road because he couldnt bear to let citi and bof a et al go down will be $2 trillion. Money down the drain and if you understand finance you will realize it has to be done
and then money is right down the toilet it doesnt even pay for honeybee insurance. Not to mention the tens of millions of jobs caused by that hangover.