The World According to Steve

After viewing a comment left by a reader on my last blog, I decided it was time to jump in the fray over the "Stimulus Package" debate now that it has finally passed and the numbers are in. I waited so long to provide my input because it almost seems as if everything that could be said about it from both sides has already been hashed over. I pride my commentaries on the fact that they are fresh and unique, so I wasn't sure I had a position on this issue that would fit the bill. That is why instead of a long diatribe on this issue, I thought I may show those who are uninformed what our federal dollars will be working to "stimulate" over the next four plus years and then you can decide the importance.

Keep in mind, some of these proposed numbers may have been cut in the Senate's version of the bill, but nonetheless they are still rather comical to highlight...

- 3-5 million for TSA employees to receive new uniforms (keep in mind the uniforms are manufactured in the U.S. but assembled in Mexico and Honduras)

- 345 million to the Department of Agriculture for computer upgrades (good...Dell gets a boost, but what about the other computer companies - they need stimulating too).

- 600 million to be spent on "green" cars for Government employees

- 8 billion for magnetic-levitation rail lines. Part of this project will be to connect Disneyland to Las Vegas via a train that travels 311-mph and covers the distance in 2 hours (you know who should pay for this project...private investors, say like from Disney or Vegas corporations not someone who lives in western Wyoming). Thanks Harry Reid.

- 870 million to the CDC to combat flu and 400 million to slow the speed of HIV/STDs.

- 75 million for smoking cessation

- 75 million for FBI salaries

- 200 million to Filipino WWII veterans for overdue compensation (it is reported that many of these individuals currently live overseas).

- 650 million for TV converter boxes (so my parents can get their third TV located in the kitchen up-to-speed, despite already having two other televisions hooked up to DirectTV).

- 246 million for tax breaks to Hollywood movie producers looking to buy films (???)

- 1 billion for the 2010 census because of a projected cost overrun of 3 billion dollars.

- 25 million for alcohol and substance abuse reduction (finally...something in this bill for me).

- 88 million to help move the Public Health Services department into a new building (the real winners in the stimulus package...movers).

- 125 million for Washington D.C. sewer system (not the only thing in D.C. that stinks)

- 850 million for Amtrak (yes...trains).

- 448 million to construct the Department of Homeland Security Headquarters

- 248 million to provide furniture for the Department of Homeland Security Headquarters (the real winners in the stimulus package...the Amish).

- 150 million for Smithsonian Museum facilities (have you been to the Louisville Science Center lately...come on...help a struggling city out - we have a Democrat Mayor).

- 5 dollars for the migraine I received researching all this crap.

My absolute favorite part of this whole thing is that we are spending darn near a billion dollars on revitalizing choo-choo trains, while at the same time investing in magnetic levitation rail lines. Really? No one besides Fox News finds this junk a tad bit offensive? Remember, at some point this is our money paying for all this nonsense.

Look, after trying to digest all this mess I have come up with a solution. If your a single male...run...get married...knock her up quick...sit back and collect an additional $400 that you would not have made prior because you were single, because it is the only thing your going to see from this bill unless you work in the Federal Government or happen to be in on the ground floor of this Jeston's project that involves floating to/from Sin City and the Happiest Place on Earth.

Despite most of my postings, I actually like the President. Despite the ticker in the right hand margin of the blog, I don't wish him a speedy exit - some of it is out of fun. But come on. People in government are getting new hybrid Denali's? When you said CHANGE, you were not kidding. Even George W(hacko) Bush didn't pander that much to the local crowd. I want to like the President, but the first weeks have been nothing but boneheaded moves. This should not surprise any of us if we actually listened before the election. Keep in mind this bill is not even his, rather it has the fingerprints of many others on it and Obama has sat back and watched it all unfold.

That is what I mean by 'not being surprised'. He has been notorious for sitting back and not getting involved. As a Illinois state Senator he had the reputation of voting "present" instead of taking a hard stand. His short stint in the US Senate he never wavered from voting with his peers in his own party. Now he is watching as the majority dump debt in the laps of unborn generation, so they can clean it up.

The bottom line for me is not my fear of this stimulus bill, because it is all Monopoly money anyways. I'm more concerned about what is coming next? My fear exists because I wonder why this president wants to place The White House in charge of the Census Bureau. And even more concerning, why does the media not care a single bit? My fear exists in the details of Tom Daschle's Centralized Healthcare proposal (Universal Healthcare) and even though he is no longer apart of the President's Criminal Cabinet, I'm sure his fingerprints will be all over the eventual plan.

People joke, though at times poignantly serious, that this President wants our country to move closer to a Socialist society. Though I am not that extreme a thinker, it does appear we are closer than many may want to admit. After all, where is all this borrowed money originating? Yep...China. Of course there are other countries as well, but I have heard it said that we are in the tank for 11 trillion dollars to China alone. If we owe a socialist country like China that much money, of which we have no clear plan to pay them back...there appears to be only one way we can describe our relationship with them...they are our economic pimps. Although that sounds crude or crass, the description fits.

When you borrow money from the bank to buy a house and you can't pay...who owns your house when things go south? Sure hope we can pay up so China doesn't own our Disneyland teleportation system anytime soon.