American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Feel Stimulated Yet)

Just as a little light reading before you read the other post in  this category feel free to read the 1000+ pages of stimulus.

hr1_final 2009 

 

I’m trying to be really conscientious and actually read the whole things so while I’m doing that ill make periodic post on sections of it and will reference to this PDF page numbers.

 

As it makes it easier and smaller to read… I am uploading the Signed version of the bill because they got rid of the doube spaceing and line numbering it only takes up 400 odd pages so here it it the blog will still reference the 1070 page version since i allready started…

 

HR1 2009 Signed Version

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

referenced material p58-63 HR1 2009  and  HR2447 2007

I think my eyes are actually bleeding reading this section.

Lets start with what was written first HR2447 2007, ok before i give you my commentary ill give you a run down of what it says, since some of you may not want to read the drivel yourselves.

Ok in this bill “Energy and Environment Block Grant Act of 2007″ the congress “found” a few things and are writing a bill to tell us what they are gonna do about it.

• Based on a UN report they agree that the world scientific community agrees that global warming is caused by humans and the release of greenhouse gases do to  industrialization
  • STOP THE BOAT… ok i was gonna go through the whole thing then comment.. but that’s not gonna work.  some things wrong with this they are basing a government decision on bad science (if science at all) by their own words it is bases on consensus .  It was consensus  that said the world was FLAT, it was consensus that said we were the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, SOLOR SYSTEM, it was consensus that thought fly were brought about by spontaneous generation.  Global Warming has not been proving though many times disproven and yet we write legislation based on this unproven junk science. a side side note… people were killed back in the day for saying that the world was round.  How far do we have to go… anyway back to the bill.
• most of the rest of the points could be summed up with we are 5% of the worlds population producing 25% of the “greenhouse gases” and on and on with the al gore talking points…
  • That’s it I’m starting a new section for ENVIRONMENT please visit that section when i get a post going and i will try and lay out a case for kicking the consensus out of our science

Ok so we already talked about why this was a bad piece of bill, but further more it only assigned money to government agencies and non profit agencies for the TRAINING OF PEOPLE basically it was a bill full of money to make you believe something and live a certain way.  

“Local governments, through revised building codes, building

inspection, and the promotion of energy efficient retrofits and

conservation measures, are uniquely positioned to work with their

local business communities to encourage energy efficiency and

greenhouse gas reduction strategies within the building

construction and management sectors.” – portions from HR2447 2007

Here is basically what they are doing, the American dream and mind set is not going to build smaller houses use less energy when its not needed so here is what they said… were gonna make you!  ohh and just to be clear none of this aid could come to you to actually do any of these things but just to organization that could tell you to do these things.

Lastly on this bill is the budget basically… $150,000,000 a year

So enter the new year with a new president HR1 2009 P58-63

Here is comes… are you ready 16.8 BILLION Dollars for this lovely section and 3.2 Billion dollars of that goes to the before mentioned act…  thats right they just increased their budget by a factor of 215.

And where you might ask is the rest of it going well here is the breakdown

• 5 Billion for “‘Weatherization Assistance Program” a government agency that give low income homes $$$ to use less energy through new windows, insulation etc…
• 2 Billion to companies (FINALLY GIVING MONEY TO SOMEONE WHO JUST MIGHT MAKE SOMETHING USEFULL) for advanced batteries
• 1.6 Billion for something quite vague “Science” but if you look its science into “URANIUM ENRICHMENT DECONTAMINATION AND DECOMISIONING” Aka dismantle the nukes!
• Last but not least 3.4 Billion for researching new ”Fossil Energy Research and Development”  which might be the only thing usefull in this bill except that it is a government agency deciding what projects they go to fund seeing as how allot off the projects that they research are NOT Fossil Energy.  But there is that glimmer of hope that some of it will be spent to get our own OIL and OIL shale
• there are of course little bits of money missing in my summery but these are the biggies.

ENERGY & WATER DEVELOPMENT DOD-CIVIL

Excerpt from page 50-56 HR1 2009

Department of Army Corps of Engineers $4,500,000,000

$2,000,000,000 for Civil Construction, with the following rules:

• Costs shall not be shared with the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.
• Funds can only be used for programs, projects, or activities previously funded.
• Funds can only be used for programs that can be completed using the provided funds.
• Prioritize funds on accelerating current contracts, or fully funding project elements within 2 years, giving preference to labor intensive projects.
• Funds can be used to pay off expired or obligated projects.
• The Secretary of the Army shall submit a quarterly report the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
• The $100,000,000/year spending cap (33 USC 2221) does not apply to these funds.
• (33 USC 2280) does not apply to any project that receives these funds during the fiscal year 2009.
• Funds can be used for the projects outlined in (33 USC 701r, 22 USC 701s, 33 USC 2330, 33 USC 2309a), with the above rules applying.

Now there is a few interesting things i would like to bring up.

1. Why was this not put into the regular budget
2. How does this create or save jobs last i checked the US Military was not firing people or laying anyone off nor does the Core of Engineers higher people from without
3. Alll of the money for this while labeled Energy and Water developement less then 10% actually has to be used for that
4. None of this money can be used for new projects they all have to be existing and be able to be finished with t his money… side note they can also use this money to pay off old debt, just thought that was a little humerous… if it was not my money

N.A.S.A. & NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Located on page 42-43 of HR1 2009 we have another great example of Obama and the democrat congress giving us a great was to stimulate the economy.

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

• For an additional amount for “Science”$400,000,000. 
  • Earth Science Climate Research Missions’’$250,000,000.
• For an additional amount for “Aeronautics”$150,000,000. 
• For an additional amount for “Exploration”,$400,000,000. 
• For an additional amount for “Cross Agency Support” $50,000,000.

N.A.S.A Great organization put a man on the moon, man in space etc… would have to say though would not be my first choice for expanding jobs and making the economy rebound.  And please tell me why we are forking over 250 Million Dollars to have NASA tell me that our evil country is going to destroy the world. with allot less money they could have just told me that as they already to on PBS

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

• Research and Related Activities $2,500,000,000

OK so here we have the government trowing lots of money at two agencies. Again not a huge job creation per $ I’m guessing.  In the bill we have a donation to the NSF for 2.5 Billion dollars and only 500 million of that is even ear marked.  Oh… interestingly enough the Major Research Instrumentation Program which is given 300 Millionthrough this NSF section is nothing more then a direct hand out to the “institutions of higher learning” for their science programs.  But where is the commonsense, if funneling money threw one government organization takes 3-7% of the money for it to get to its intended destination then why not funnel it through 3-4 then the money can do less for less people…

Now that is interesting we are giving 2.5 Billion Dollars to a company that has 1700 employees. Now let me point out i know that these employees are not going to get this money but talking about job creation or retention we just paid $1,470,000 per employee, and increased their annual budget by over 41%

National Science Foundation
Motto: Supporting Education and Research across all fields of Science and TechnologyAmerica’s Investment in the Future Where Discoveries Begin
Agency overview
Formed	10 May 1950
Headquarters	Arlington, VA
Employees	1700
Annual Budget	$6.02 billion for 2008
Agency Executive	Arden L. Bement Jr., Director
Website
www.nsf.gov

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN PREVENTION AND PROSECUTION PROGRAMS

(Excerpt from page 39 of HR1 2009)

OK for a moment I’m going to pretend that this was not in the “stimulus” bill.  Its all very nice give more money to a program to help women.  But at the heart of this is the fact that its in an “Economic Stimulus Package”  they throw 225 Millionat an organization and then as an after thought they say… well gee wizz i guess we should make it have to do something with the economy so the put the limitation that 50 millionmust go toward “Transitional Housing”  Again its a little bit of a stretch that it would really help the economy to put battered women up in temporary lodging.

As has been touted by many in the alternative media, this bill remains to be just a compilation of peoples pet projects and a massive consolidation of power.

BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAM

Now here is another set of wonderful ways to stimulate the economy found on page 36-38 & the Sec 2 which is reference is on page 1049-1060

Here is the real breakdown:

 NEW GOVERNMENT AGENCY!!! YAY
(National Telecommunications and Information Administration) NTIA

NTIA gets $350,000,000for salaries and expenses just till sep 2011

Then they get 2.825 Billionto give as grants… That’s right free money for companies which all ready have plans and employees in place to expand.  Furthermore the NTIA is who decided who gets the money and one of the key factors in deciding who get the money is how quickly they can implement the infrastructure.  What this means is that it is not for new job creation but simply keeping existing companies propped up.  So here it is

• 1 Billion for Wireless Deployment Grants A.K.A. Verizon Wireless gets lots of money
• 1.825 Billionfor Broadband Deployment Grants A.K.A Time Warner, Comcast get lots of money

Last but not least 650 Million Dollarsgo to give us poor people more digital converter box’s and teach us how to install them… Because we all know that TV and Internet should have been written into the bill of rights and people watching TV while surfing the Internet make lots of money…

Perhaps what this all boils down to is making us  more comfortable in the CRAP were in so we have no desire or motivation to make things actually better.

hr1-36-38 BROADBAND SEC2 (REFERENCE DOCS)

BUREAU OF THE CENSUS p36

Well what can i say about this part of the stimulus bill…  If the rest were like this it would have only been a 12 page bill, and at least we know what department its going too.  But why, tell me why, does the census bureau need more money on top of there regular budget. Word to the wise that is aproximatly 5x more money then they requested in 2008.

DISTANCE LEARNING, TELEMEDICINE, AND BROADBAND PROGRAM

There goes $2.5 Billion read the excerpt from HR1 2009 Page 9-11

Well here is the summery if this section the government is allotting for 2,500,000,000 to subsidies the expansion of broadband services is the same like fashion as Rural Electrification Act of 1936 Which simply put… said that the government will give you money at a very low rate and at very low collateral backing it up if you use 75% of that money to put new lines in rural areas AKA places where competition does not already exist.

On the one hand. Had it not been for the R.E.A. the prices that people pay for electricity in the city would be tremendously cheaper then what we pay in the country. Which from my point of view is a good thing that the energy is as cheep as it is now.  Would the power have eventually gotten out to the rural communities… most likely but I could defiantly see how the government could direct the interests of businesses to the greater good.  One little difference,  I would hardly make the same comparison of greater good for broadband internet.  As it is a very large percentage of the population has ease of access to huge speed internet.  Furthermore I would not say that it qualifies in the same category as Electricity for making life more livable, especially when we are talking about getting people back to work.

An interesting caveat however in the legislation by looking into the original legislation of 1936 you can see that any money lent to the companies if they do not repay the government now owns the lines which that company put in.  And they continue to hold them under their ownership for at least 5 years at which point the secretary of that department of energy decides what is a FAIR selling price

One final note even if this was a good idea the amount of money that is proposed is spit in the bucket of a broadband infrastructure.  Verizon is currently in the process of upgrading their entire network for broadband access and it is likely to cost well over 3 Billion dollars.  So once again…

THIS IS NOT A BILL TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY BUT TO PROP UP SOMEONE THAT LOBBIED…  Verizon is more then capable of paying for their own upgrade and reaping the benefits… but why pay for it themselves, when they can lobby and get nearly all of it paid for by YOU!!!