Big Dogs House

The Stimulus Had A Lot Of Pork In It

Jul 20, 2009 Political

Now we know why they call it the Porkulus… (from the front page of Drudge)

RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $2,531,600 FOR ‘HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR ‘2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR ‘CANNED PORK’…

There sure is a lot of pork in that bill…

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement indicating that the quantities of pork purchased were much higher. He said the pork came in 2 pound packages and they bought 760,000 pounds of it and that is why it cost so much. He said it was about $1.50 a pound.

Food lion has pork for 0.79 a pound. Seems to me if they are going to buy 380 tons of pork they could get a better price than Food Lion.

These might be legitimate costs (if they are telling the truth) but there are plenty that are not. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace a (one) door and a (one) dumbwaiter as well as install a traffic light. I saw many items where the available money equaled the bid, how convenient!

Perhaps, if they want to keep from creating confusion, they could actually put a quantity purchased on the bills so we know what was bought and can assess if the money was spent wisely.

I also want to know how buying all this food (which includes tons of cheese) is creating jobs. Sure, farmers have to produce more but how many people are being put to work?

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Tags: government waste, jobs, pork, stimulus, Vilsack

Turtles Are Not This Smart*

Jun 17, 2009 Political

* But they are at least as smart as the dumb people who thought up this boondoggle. This is indicative of the mindset of people who really do not know the value of a dollar, combined with the total ignorance of how turtles think and act, among other things. This is just one of the more ridiculous things that  our money is being spent on.  Look, I would have no problem with this project if I thought that  turtles would actually use and benefit from this underpass built with several million of our dollars- of course, that would be an awful lot of turtles to make this project cost- effective.

The 13-foot tunnel near Tallahassee, Fla., runs under Highway 27 — a busy road that has the highest road-kill rate for turtles in the world, according to state officials. 
Josh Boan, the Florida Transportation Department’s natural resources manager, said a large number of turtles and other wildlife are killed in the area. In addition to protecting wildlife, he said the project is needed for safety: turtles hit by vehicles can become flying projectiles.
foxnews.com

This is an example of government gone wild  with regards to budgets.  If turtles would or could use this, perhaps  could almost wrap my mind around this, as I have spent countless amounts of time picking turtles off of roads where they are trying to get to the other side for whatever reason.

But the sad fact is that turtles are not reasoning creatures- they do not see this tunnel and think, “Cool, a better way to cross”, simply because they do not think on a cogent level. They are primatives in their thoughts, reacting to danger and comfort pretty much exclusively.

In studies, the turtle was shown to not even notice cars, since the speed of these cars were above the perception of these creatures. Nor have they ever been shown to have any logical thought processes- they are strictly instinctual creatures, so they will not travel to a tunnel to cross the road, because they are incapable of the thought it would take to make that connection. Therefore, all creatures who did employ this tunnel would truly do so by accident.

Don’t you think there could be better uses for what little money we really have, than to satisfy some delusional politician’s ecological feel- good nonsense at this time?  I grew up catching snakes and turtles- I know how they think, and I am sympathetic to their plight, but this is so wrong- headed as to defy common sense on several levels. Turtles will cross the road whereever they come to the road, and that is a sad fact.<
So say goodbye to 3.4 million dollars of your money, used on something that will not help that which it is intended to do- but that is the story of America's government when it comes to spending our money- they just have to spend it, or they will have some kind of budgetary aneurysm, and they just have to spend it on worthless stuff that sounds great, but does nothing.

Can’t we just, for once, actually spend money wisely? Does the President and Congress have to act like drunken lottery winners, spending money just because they can?

This is money we can not spare, not even for turtles.

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Tags: government waste, insanity, stupidity, turtles

So Much for Democratic Fiscal Responsibility

Nov 15, 2007 Political

Citizens Against Government Waste is putting the finishing touches on its pork report for the year and what they will report is not pretty. There were 8000 earmarks totaling 20 billion dollars. That is 20 billion dollars in taxpayer money that was flushed down the drain by the Democratic Congress, the ones who promised to put an end to waste and be a more efficient government. The truth is they could not keep their money grubbing hands out of our pockets and they could not exercise any control. For those who say the government should tax the hell out of us to provide unconstitutional social programs, here is 20 billion dollars that could have provided services without raising taxes.

Of course, I do not believe in universal health care or other government run and government provided services but if I did I would be asking how we can afford this kind of waste and not the items that Democrats think are important. The Republican led Congress (and President Bush for that matter) was no better but they lost last year so this is on the new majority. The Democrats campaigned on their ability to fix these kinds of things and now it is glaringly obvious that they are unable. They lack control and they lack responsibility.

Democrats like to say we need to end the war because that is why they were elected. They campaigned on ending the war along with the promise to be responsible with our money so that means if ending the war was a mandate, so was being fiscally responsible. They have failed miserably on both counts.

I do not think the election was a mandate on the war but this is what they think. So they are not free to cherry pick what they were elected to do. They promised to be responsible with our money and they have not been. This is another reason we need the line item veto and it is a very good example of why we should never trust Democrats.

There should be no doubt that they are truly the tax and spend party.

Source:
The Politico

Others with similar items:
Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, The Random Yak, Right Truth, The Populist, The Pet Haven Blog, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, Wake Up America, Conservative Cat, Nuke’s, Faultline USA, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, CORSARI D’ITALIA, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Tags: Congress, Democrats, government waste, line item veto, mandate, pork report, President, tax and spend, taxpayer money, universal health care, war