Join us on April 15th. The Tea Party begins at 11:00

WHERE AND WHEN (you know the WHY):

 Civic Center (Plaza) Park.

Corner of McAllister and Polk.

From there, we walk to 450 Golden Gate (one block) to Pelosi’s office.

11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.

Come for the entire time or part of it; we will be in either of the two locations.

 

Oink, Oink, Oink…

With or without earmarks — and despite what Obama & Pelosi said — special-interest spending has found its way into the stimulus in massive doses, budget watchers contend. “We were told this was going to be a massive infrastructure spending program,” says Veronique De Rugy, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. She argues that the bill is overflowing not with needed infrastructure spending, but with hundreds of billions in pork.

Perhaps the majority of the $787 billion isn’t pork as so called ‘tax relief ‘ makes up some 34 percent of the bill.  But don’t be mis-led, there is plenty of pork to go along with all the beans being handed out by the Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Democrat Stimulus Bill.

Where you might find the pork is in the so-called discretionary spending portion of the bill, which amount to $308 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Of that money, $48 billion goes to the Department of Transportation for various rail and road projects to repair and expand infrastructure. That leaves about $260 billion of discretionary spending that goes to various federal agencies, as well as to state and local governments. How much of that amount helps special interests instead of the economy as a whole? That depends, of course, on what you consider a special interest. But decide for yourself.

Here is a list of some of the most controversial individual pieces of discretionary spending that might have the pleasant taste of pork.

1) Green golf carts. Ever rode a “neighborhood electric vehicle?” Well, you might want to now. The stimulus includes a tax credit toward the purchase of NEVs, which closely resemble golf carts in appearance. They are considered green vehicles because they use an electric battery instead of gasoline. You fill it up with juice by plugging it into a home electrical outlet. Don’t expect to be able to take your NEV far outside of your neighborhood, though. Federal regulations limit their top speed to between 20 and 25 miles per hour. Freeway cruising is out.

Those aren’t the only green vehicles getting stimulus subsidies. There is also $300 million to buy “green” cars for federal employees.

2) Closing the ice-breaking gap. The U.S. Coast Guard is getting a shot in the arm from the stimulus, thanks to $98 million for a “polar icebreaker.” That’s not a new gum flavor, but a ship. The service currently has three ice-breaking ships able to sail through the frozen Arctic Ocean, but it wants a new and improved one to upgrade the aging fleet. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard, testified before a House panel last summer that icebreakers are needed for national security reasons. “Russia, Germany, China, Sweden and Canada are all investing and maintaining and expanding their national ice-breaking capacity,” he said.

3) Homeland security stimulus. That pricey icebreaker is just one of several examples of homeland and national security spending contained in the stimulus not directly connected to restoration of the economy. There is also $200 million to “design and furnish” the Department of Homeland Security headquarters. De Rugy says that security spending should be considered by Congress in bills related to security, not the economy. “There was no debating these things on the merits,” she says.

4) Clean Coal. While Obama has stressed the number of “green jobs” his stimulus will create, $3.4 billion of the $787 billion will be spent on old-school, non-green energy technology. That’s how much goes to the Fossil Energy Research and Development program, a Department of Energy project that, among other things, seeks to reduce the amount of carbon emitted by the use of fossil fuels. Daniel Weiss, a senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, says that most of this money will go toward the development of clean-coal technology. “The goal is to develop a technology that can capture carbon dioxide from coal in a coal-fired power plant,” he says. And where’s the stimulus in clean coal? Weiss says that we won’t see the results of this investment anytime soon, and $3.4 billion is probably only a fraction of what is needed for real clean-coal technology to ever be achieved. But, he adds, in the short term, “this would create research jobs and jobs at power plants.” That isn’t stopping critics from calling this fossil energy provision pork.

5) Mystery Meat. It’s hard to know just how much pork there is in the stimulus package for one simple reason: We still don’t know how exactly a huge chunk of it will be spent. A whopping $144 billion from the bill is flowing directly to state and local governments.

That means the true amount of pork will depend on the priorities of your governors, legislatures, and mayors. The best guesses for what this money will be spent on might be in a list of “ready-to-go” projects released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January, dubbed the “Main Street Economic Recovery.” Some of the most outlandish of these projects — such as an $886,000 36-hole disc golf course in Austin, Texas — won’t be allowed to receive stimulus dollars because the bill explicitly says that none of its funds can be used for “any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool.”

But a prohibition on funding toward any “stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project” was dropped from the final version of the bill……that means that many other porky projects from the U.S. Conference of Mayors  report are open to get money.  How convenient, just imagine what Mayor Daley has up his sleeve! That includes $150 million for parking improvements at a Little League facility in Cidra, Puerto Rico, and $6 million for a “snowmaking and maintenance facility” at Spirit Mountain ski area in Duluth, Minnesota.  (the mayor of sacramento left late last night for Washington DC to have “breakfast with obama”, along with 300 other mayors).

And here is the Obamamessiah telling the American people that ‘recovery.gov’ is going to ensure that the stimulus plan (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) is going to “stimulate the economy”.  He’s such an arrogant, condescending liar.    http://www.recovery.gov/

Washington Pigs and their Pork….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Economic Stimulus Plan presented by the Democratic Leadership is filled with Pork.  

For example:

• $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system
• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint
• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters

And this…..

$1.9 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service

Important Note:  Charles Rangel helps to write “tax code” ~ ain’t he cute? 

It’s been dubbed the “Monument to Me” — a planned $30 million academic center supported by longtime New York Rep. Charles Rangel and named, not so surprisingly, for Rep. Charles Rangel. The Harlem Democrat raised hackles after securing a $1.9 million earmark for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York.

When a more junior colleague objected to the idea of lawmakers sponsoring things bearing their own names, the 78-year-old Congressman responded “I would have a problem if you did it, because I don’t think that you’ve been around long enough….” Rangel ruffled more feathers by reportedly soliciting donations for the center from companies with business before the powerful Ways and Means Committee — which he chairs.

He also stands accused of working to preserve a tax shelter for an oil drilling company whose chief executive pledged $1 million to the center; Rangel says his support for the legislation had nothing to do with the company or its executive’s pledge.

It hasn’t helped Rangel’s case that he’s been caught up in a number of ethical and legal tangles in recent months, including his failure to report $75,000 in rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republican, alleged violations of New York regulations on rent-stabilized apartments, and reports of inappropriately taking a tax break on a home in Washington, D.C. Rangel has acknowledged some oversights but insisted he’s “done nothing morally wrong,” and welcomed a House ethics investigation that’s expected to wrap up early in 2009.

Charles Rangel is a pork lovin’ pig….who has been livin’ high on the hog and like Geithner & Daschle isn’t payin’ his taxes!

This is BY FAR the most insincere attempt at a so-called apology that I have ever seen.  He can’t even read the statement that was prepared for him.  Time to get rid of this useless slob!

Evidently Rangel’s patience for scrutiny has a limit: pressed by a reporter on his fundraising tactics for the academic center named for him, Rangel responded, “I really think you’re being annoying now.”