American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – The Stimulus Package in PDF format
The United States of America is a wonderful place, for many many reasons. One of the best reasons….everything the government does is public domain. So all bills passed, all laws that are pending, everything the government is based on can be found in the Library of Congress. Feel free to check their website out at http://thomas.loc.gov/, it’s a little cumbersome, but with a little tenacity you can find anything there. This includes the actual Obama Stimulus Plan. Now, you could listen to Fox News and take what they say for gospel, but most people would agree that that is definitely spun to the conservatives. Personally, I don’t have a problem with that, but you should know there is a spin. You could also get all your news from CNN or ABC or NBC. Those networks are most definitely the inverse of Fox News; things there tend to be spinning a little (or a lot) to the left. You could even blend the two together to get the best view of both worlds…or you could do the research for yourself. I chose the latter for this diatribe.
Attached to this you will see the 647 page PDF document, straight from Washington DC. There is absolutely no spin here, this is a complete, RAW, unedited Bill going through the house and senate as we speak. It is titled the “American Recovery 3 and Reinvestment Act of 2009″. So all the news networks are talking about the new stimulus package, some are for it and some are against. What does the stimulus package actually hold? I have dissected it below. There are literally thousands of programs that this bill is starting, but I am only going to mention a selection of the ones that are funded at over $1 Billion dollars.
Well, the first thing noted in there is how swiftly this bill is going to take effect. Preferences are being made to activities that can be started within 120 days of the bill becoming law. The goal is that 50 percent of the funding is going to be spent within that 120 day period. The total bill is going to cost around $820 billion dollars, so the executive branch is trying to spend over $400 billion dollars within 4 months of this bill being approved. That is just an awful lot of money. Hopefully, in its haste, the government is able to wisely spend it all. The secondary time limit being imposed by this bill is that all of the funding being appropriated will be spent by September 30, 2010. To be clear, that means the government is knowingly committing to spending close to a trillion dollars in about a year and a half.
For a little bit of perspective, the total cost of the war since 2002 is currently less than 600 Billion. So in a little over a year, we will be spending more than we have spent in the last 7 fighting in Iraq. National Priorities is an organization that analyzes and classifies government spending. They have a ticker on the right hand side of their site showing the current total cost of the war, you should check that out sometime.
After parsing several pages of legalese, page 37 starts getting into actual dollar figures being spent for different programs. Rural development starts the list, and most of the figures here are small, relatively speaking. For instance, there is 2.7 Billion being spent for rural water and water disposal plans. Page 40 states there will be $22 Billion made available for section 502 loans. These are loans that help low income families afford homes in rural areas. I wouldn’t say this necessarily would IMPROVE the economy, but I can justify this. It’s provisioning money to help out those who flat out can’t afford a home through any other means. No one deserves to be homeless, so this is at least an honorable goal, the economy notwithstanding.
Page 50 gets into funding for internet related plans. I personally love all things digital, and could not live without my high speed internet, but this too I must ask. Does investing $1 Billion dollars in wireless development and $1.8 Billion in broadband connectivity really help improve the economy? Let’s assume for a moment it does. Let’s say that any home that has high speed internet spends say an additional 20 percent per month. Those numbers are clearly far from actuality, but let’s assume they do. An increase like that would definitely help the economy, but the building up the infrastructure just takes way to long. My parents, for instance, live in rural King George, where the Cable has stopped a mile from their house. It was like that 20 years ago when we moved to Virginia, and it hasn’t moved since. Investing that much money for high speed internet will most likely not see a return on investment in Obama’s term. I am willing to be it won’t see an ROI for 2 presidential terms. That being said, it’s less than $3 Billion, so its low cost, relatively speaking. Even though it definitely won’t have a noticeable impact on the economy, I suppose we can let that one slide too.
Page 52 shows $3 Billion being invested in a grant for State and Local Law Enforcement. I am definitely scratching my head over this one. Now, don’t get me wrong…I respect police. I am thankful for what they do, I am thankful I live in a safe neighborhood because of them, but I just fail to see how putting money into law enforcement is going to help the economy, unless of course there has been a large outbreak of bank robberies I wasn’t aware of. Again, $3 Billion is small compared to the total, but these small items certainly do seem to add up.
Page 55 gets into the Department of Defense, so it’s a double edges sword for me. I am a defense contractor, so DoD money is my life blood, but I even have to object to this. The stimulus package is investing $4.5 Billion to modernize army barracks, and improve the efficiency of DoD facilities. Really. Ok, so I guess if our infantrymen are comfortable in their bunks, they will spend more money? And if a DoD building has energy-star windows the cost savings will immediately overpower the costs involved. I can really see how this improves the economy!
The myriad of small charges continues on for several pages, no major dollar signs until page 62. The Energy Program, however, takes a Whopping $18.5 Billion dollars. $2 Billion of that is for researching the creation of advanced batteries. $6.2 is for the weatherization program, which is aimed to help low income families make their homes more energy efficient. I have spent almost 40,000 myself on making my home more energy efficient, I didn’t even know there was a program like this available. $3.5 Billion has been made available to Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants and $3.4 Billion to the State Energy Program. An additional $4.5 Billion is being invested into advancing the power grid in this nation. Now I am all for research and development, and I can see how it is necessary to have a decent power grid, but I just don’t see a major impact in the economy because of these things. Yes, there will be some more jobs created, but I don’t think the net impact on the economy based on those jobs is going to come close to equaling the amount invested in this section of the stimulus.
Skipping down to page 75, we see $7.7 Billion being invested in improving federal buildings. $1 Billion of that is to improve our border facilities, and $6 Billion is for making Federal Buildings more energy efficient. These changes will have no effect on the economy, why are they included in the Economy Stimulus Package. This really is just turning into the gateway bill that gets everything approved, whether or not it relates to the overall goal. I mean, up to this point, there really hasn’t been anything mentioned that is going to have a profound impact on the economy and billions have already been spent. It seems to me that this is already turning out to be wasteful. But let’s continue, maybe it gets better soon….
Skipping way down to page 112, we come to another large amount. $1.7 Billion is being invested into maintenance needs to the national parks. Now here in King George, we are close to several national parks. Westmoreland National Park is nice, there’s a nice one towards La Plata in MD, and Orange County has some nice ones in the mountains. The national parks really are beautiful places, and cheap. I can get an all day pass for like 5 dollars. So, where is the economic impact? How is investing $1.7 Billion really going to affect the economy? What’s the ROI here?
Page 116 shows $6 Billion being invested in the Clean Water State Revolving Funds, which aims to protect the water quality. This one I guess makes sense. By investing so much money, I’ll have plenty of clean water to drink when I am out spending money. That must have been their reasoning.
Page 123 shows an entry for $1.2 Billion dollars to create jobs for the summer youth. This one will actually have a major positive effect. If there is one thing that is for certain, it’s that kid’s waste money. I remember when I was in school my job was Gas, Car Insurance and Fun money. I wish today that is all I had to worry about. I can 100 percent see the use in this allotment.
Pages 139 and 140 designate another $6.2 Billion to provide for low income energy assistance and child care. Now at best, this allotment can only indirectly affect the economy. By providing discounts and assistance to low income families, the money that would be spent on paying the power bill is now available to spend elsewhere. Compared to the rest of these programs, there is at least a positive move with this one. It’s not a major impact, at best boosting the economy by $3 Billion, but it is at least a move in the right direction.
Page 146 gets into the health programs, where $3 Billion is being invested in programs to increase immunizations, research chronic diseases and the human genome, search for the cure to Aids, prevent infections, and several other biological areas. While the health of this country is definitely something that should be improved, I just don’t see how the economy is going to respond. Maybe it’s like the water plan mentioned above, in that healthy people can spend more money.
Page 157 designates $13 billion into improving our education system with grants and school improvement programs. An entirely noble program, but unrelated. The litany of programs being started from this without economic ties is starting to amaze me. This is far from an economic stimulus. This is the liberal doctrine, dressed up like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Most of these programs should have been run through separately, and we aren’t even a third of the way through.
The education section was quite large, so the next item of contention is on page 201. $3.75 Billion is being invested in Military Hospitals. I bring this one up really to be fair. My personal biases would normally not have any issue at all with this, but I am trying to be as bi-partisan as possible. While I believe all of our troops deserve the best possible health care, I just don’t see a direct corollary with military health and the economy. Having the best hospital in the world will only affect the economy by created jobs for the staff. This program is for the construction of new hospitals, which will not happen overnight….so any impact at all is years off.
Page 208 shows an investment of $30 Billion to improve the roads in this country, so I guess we can enjoy a smooth ride to the mall. Conversely, a tenth of that is being invested into the rail road systems. Probably 2 years ago I had my first trip on the DC Metro, and man….they need some improvements! I would think 300 million could be invested on the DC metro alone. Page 213 shows $6 Billion going to various programs under the Federal Transit Administration, 214 puts another $2 Billion into the Guideway Infrastructure. 217 gives another $5 Billion to public housing. Page 219 puts $2.5 Billion in the hands of landlords and organizations that own Assisted Living properties for the purpose of energy efficiency improvement. Page 222 puts $4 Billion in place for community development programs. These all are valid programs, they just don’t have a high ROI.
Skipping past the rest of the low income homes, we get to a whopper on page 237. $79 Billion being given to the Department of Education. These are more grants and incentives for completing school, and for improving those programs. Education is definitely a very important goal for all students. I wish I had been smart when I was younger and finished my degree. The problem is, again, there is no direct connection. If schools are better, they will help kids in the long run, but this doesn’t equate to solving our financial crisis now. In the end, the return on this program is we are going to have a bunch of smart kids in top quality schools going home to jobless parents scraping by on food stamps.
Obama’s new tax provisions begin on page 251. There are over 70 pages of tax laws being enacted, but nothing seriously different than what we are currently used to. The majority of the people will receive no huge impact from this. I believe the total impact is actually going to be a drop of over $200 Billion. So if this program is over $800 billion and the tax cuts cost the government $200 Billion, then this first quarter is going to cost the country over a trillion dollars. Just some food for thought.
Page 335 then gets into extending unemployment. No firm dollar figures are discussed in this whole section, but unemployment benefits are going to be increased, even doubled in some cases. I can see where this has an impact on the economy; I just wish it was a little clearer how much was being invested in this program. I mean, if we invest $100 Billion here, but only get a marginal improvement in the economy, then as sad as it is it is kind of a waste!
The next section gets into health care information networks, and improving the infrastructure that hospitals use to transfer information, but no dollar figures are put out there. This just seems to be another pipe dream, another idea that someone came up with that would be real cool, but won’t have a noticeable economic impact.
Page 622 delves into the Broadband Communication programs. This is the designation of how the $3.8 Billion, mentioned earlier, is going to be split up. Just another cool idea, but really a negligible impact on the economy. That is the stimulus package in a nut shell, although in my opinion it’s anything but. It’s more like a hodge-podge collection of programs with different goals, none of which are improving the economy. If this is the best we can come up with to improve the economy, I think we are all in more trouble than we realize.
So I open this topic up for debate. If you were president, would you fund these programs to improve the economy? Does this stimulus package still give you the warm fuzzy inside, or do you think it’s going to flop? Again, I took all of this straight from the Bill so there is no spin here. Let’s see if this works the way it is supposed to.
admin Politics change, economy, money, obama, stimulus, taxes
Recent Comments