Some pork in that thar budget

[Beerball]

$3.8 million for the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy in Detroit;

$1.9 million for the Pleasure Beach water taxi service in Connecticut;

$1.8 million for swine odor and manure management research in Ames, Iowa;

$380,000 for a recreation and fairgrounds area in Kotzebue, Alaska;

$143,000 for the Greater New Haven Labor History Association in Connecticut;

$95,000 for the Canton Symphony Orchestra Association in Ohio; and

$71,000 for Dance Theater Etcetera in Brooklyn for its Tolerance through Arts initiative.

 

mead are you behind this one?

$2,192,000 by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee member Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), then-House appropriator JamesWalsh (R-N.Y.), and Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.) for the Center for Grape Genetics in Geneva.

 

$4,545,000 for wood utilization research in 10 states by 19 senators and 10 representatives. This research has cost taxpayers $95.3 million since 1985.

 

what's your favorite?

Hard to beat swine odor and manure management.

[BuffaloBud]

Hey, if you have ever taken a whif of swine odor you would be on the front of the line asking for $$$.

 

WHEW!!

[The Poojer]

have ya ever driven through pig farm country? money well spent if they can figure it out....RT 40 between Raleigh and Wilmington, NC can get pretty brutal

 

mead are you behind this one?

 

 

 

 

what's your favorite?

Hard to beat swine odor and manure management.

[Bullpen]

At first glance, I'm partial to the Tiger Stadium Conservancy and their 3.8 million!

[KD in CA]

I'll go with the local one, the Pleasure Beach water taxi. Or, as one article put it, the Water Taxi to Nowhere

 

Here's a little info about the history of Pleasure Beach and why it is now largely a protected refuge for endangered birds.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasure_Beach

 

So now (after the decaying city of Bridgeport spent $500,000 of taxpayers' money lobbying for it) we're going to spend $2MM for a ferry to take people there so they can overrun and trash the place. Naturally, it will cost the city millions more to continually clean up after the crowds once they materialize, and then when they've cause environmental damage to the areas for the endangered birds, we'll see a multi million dollar "Pleasure Beach Wildlife Revitization" plan.

 

Go Government!

[/dev/null]

The economy would collapse without the Iowa Swine and Manure Research and the Canton Symphony Orchestra.

 

So they need that government money, and they need it now!!!1!!1!

[PromoTheRobot]

Some of those seem like pure pork. Others seem pretty necessary. Grape genetics seems pretty vital to a state with a significant wine industry. Pig manure management is a public health matter anywhere there are hog fams. Ever smell a hog farm? Do you like to eat bacon?

 

My favorite is Bobby Jindahl poking fun at "volcano monitoring" as if its a bunch of eggheads contemplating their navels. Considering an erupting volcano is like a dozen atom bombs going off don't you think government ought to be watching them? Or does Jindahl, governor of the hurricane-ravaged state of Louisiana, feel that government preparedness is an wasteful excess?

 

But you know what really hits me? How people will hem and haw over a few hundred grand or a million when numbers with 12 zeroes get wasted on obsolete weapons programs and bank bailouts. That's like looking for pennies in your couch when there's a dumpster full of hundreds getting hauled away by the trashman.

 

PTR

[Chef Jim]

Some of those seem like pure pork. Others seem pretty necessary. Grape genetics seems pretty vital to a state with a significant wine industry. Pig manure management is a public health matter anywhere there are hog fams. Ever smell a hog farm? Do you like to eat bacon?

 

My favorite is Bobby Jindahl poking fun at "volcano monitoring" as if its a bunch of eggheads contemplating their navels. Considering an erupting volcano is like a dozen atom bombs going off don't you think government ought to be watching them? Or does Jindahl, governor of the hurricane-ravaged state of Louisiana, feel that government preparedness is an wasteful excess?

 

But you know what really hits me? How people will hem and haw over a few hundred grand or a million when numbers with 12 zeroes get wasted on obsolete weapons programs and bank bailouts. That's like looking for pennies in your couch when there's a dumpster full of hundreds getting hauled away by the trashman.

 

PTR

 

Why should a California vineyard owner have his tax dollars go towards helping make the competition stronger? The Federal Government is waaaaaay out of control. Let NY pay for that. And personally why should my tax dollars go towards something I really have very little access to....NY wine.

[erynthered]

$3,000,000 by Senate CJS Appropriations Subcommittee member Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) for the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks to help make data received from NASA satellite images more accessible to the public. Apparently the two senators have not heard of NASA TV. According to the NASA website, “The NASA TV Public and Educational channels are ‘free-to-air,’ meaning your cable or satellite service provider can carry them at no cost.” Interested viewers should contact their local cable or satellite service provider to get NASA TV, and ask the senators for a rebate of their share of that $3 million.

 

 

I can only laugh at the stupidity of all of our elected officials in Washington.

[Beerball]

Why should a California vineyard owner have his tax dollars go towards helping make the competition stronger? The Federal Government is waaaaaay out of control. Let NY pay for that. And personally why should my tax dollars go towards something I really have very little access to....NY wine.

Studies of Grape Genetics could help save a vine some day.

[KD in CA]

I can only laugh at the stupidity of all of our elected officials in Washington the voting public.

 

Fixed.

 

The elected officials are the ones cementing their power and wealth at our expense.

[bills_fan]

Why should a California vineyard owner have his tax dollars go towards helping make the competition stronger? The Federal Government is waaaaaay out of control. Let NY pay for that. And personally why should my tax dollars go towards something I really have very little access to....NY wine.

 

 

And thats exactly the point. These are not Federal issues, never should have been. If NC wants to spend money to figure out how to reduce the odor from pig manure, go right ahead. Form a coalition with other states that have the same problem, each contribute pro rata and figure it out.

 

Why is this a Federal issue?

 

Same with the NY winegrower...state issue, state problem. This is exactly the type of shite that needs to be completely eliminated from the Federal level. There is much less accountability, oversight and far more waste when funneled through the black hole that is Washington than if these programs had been done on a local or statewide level.

 

I'm not against the merits of the programs, I'm sure most can be marginally justified in some manner, but just that the Federal government has no business being involved here.

[Chef Jim]

Studies of Grape Genetics could help save a vine some day.

 

I'm all for saving vines. To me their health is more important than children's. But seriously we're having a problem in the country differentiating between which is a local matter and one which is a Federal matter.

[Beerball]

I'm all for saving vines. To me their health is more important than children's. But seriously we're having a problem in the country differentiating between which is a local matter and one which is a Federal matter.

You don't mean that!

 

But you're absolutely right about local/state/federal.

[Adam]

My favorite is Bobby Jindahl poking fun at "volcano monitoring" as if its a bunch of eggheads contemplating their navels. Considering an erupting volcano is like a dozen atom bombs going off don't you think government ought to be watching them? Or does Jindahl, governor of the hurricane-ravaged state of Louisiana, feel that government preparedness is an wasteful excess?

 

PTR

Its one thing to poke fun at such things on a message board, but it absolutely stunned me that a man like Jindahl would make the volcano monitoring comment without doing his homework first. That was embarrassing.

[Chef Jim]

You don't mean that!

 

But you're absolutely right about local/state/federal.

 

Seeing I have no children and I drink lots of wine I'm only partly kidding. I've made it clear here in the past if you can't afford to raise children (and providing proper healthcare is part of raising them) you shoul not have children. Why should I pay for someone else's irresponsibility. Crucify away!

[Magox]

Oh Boy! The National Debt!

 

I think the idea is, since we are spending Trillions of dollars, why not let a few million go by. Who's going to miss it right? Bullsh*t !!

 

I really fear the direction we are heading in. It just doesn't make sense to me to think that we can effectively spend and print our way out of this downturn. Sure, I understand the Keynesian theories of economics, where the solution to severe downturns is to stimulate the economy through some combination of two different approaches, a reduction in interest rates and government investment in infrastructure. The thinking is that investment by government injects income or stimulus, which results in more spending in the general economy, which in turn stimulates more production and investment involving still more income and spending and so on and so on.

 

It's difficult for the government to micromanage the economy because people will realize what the government is doing and therefore will shift monies and behaviors to neutralize the impact of government policies. The government in effect will "crowd out" the private sector. Another words, there will be reduced private investment that occurs because of an increase in government spending. Let's say the increase in government spending is financed by a tax increase, the tax increase would tend to reduce private consumption.

 

This gets a little confusing, but if increased borrowing leads to higher interest rates by creating a greater demand for money, the private sector, which is sensitive to interest rates will likely reduce investment due to a lower rate of return. This is the investment that is crowded out. More importantly, a fall in fixed investment by business can hurt long term economic growth of the supply side.

 

If there is a rapid increase in the supply of money, then it is inevitable that inflation will follow. The stock cheerleaders on CNBC will point out to you quickly that Consumer and PP inflation are non existent. Sure, that is the case the now, but if all this newly created money does not cause inflation, it will be the first time in fiat money that it didn't occur. I will bet that history proves correct.

 

Now, I am not %100 opposed to the idea of some sort of government spending, because at the end of the day, the government is the only willing investor to step up to the plate, but the stimulus plan is a horrible one. Less than %5 of the funds are used for infrastructure projects. Less than %30 of the funds are appropriated for this year. This is hardly stimulus!

 

There was a bill that didn't get too many headlines that was passed a few days later, and that was the Omnibus Bill which cost the US taxpayer another $410 Billion dollars that included over 8500 "congressionally designated projects" another words, Pork!

 

The only reason why it didn't get passed last year is because congress knew that Bush would veto it, so of course you know there were many favors that President Obama had to deliver on, and this was one of them.

 

 

Couple that with $600 Billion "down payment" on Health care reform. Of course, the administration will sell fear when it is convenient to pass their Bills, but once the Bill is passed, "we are seeing signs of recovery".

 

This is not intended to be a political commentary, but more a commentary based on economics.

 

There is no doubt in my view, that we will ultimately end up in a period of painful stagflation for an extended period of time. We will experience very low growth output rates and very high inflation.

 

Sure you will see stock prices go up over the next year or so, how can it not? we are effectively creating money out of thin air, just about all asset prices have to go up in a short term basis, and yes we will see a couple quarters of decent GDP growth, how could we not?, we have been at such a depressed level for such a long time, and with all this money there will be a jump in GDP growth. This is what I call a classic "headfake" . Ultimately, the US dollar will fall, commodity prices will go up, inflation will occur, and we will be stuck with a tremendous debt that will be very hard to pay back, specially in a low growth, high inflation enviroment.

 

There are 2 ways to reduce debt. Generate more revenue, or cut spending. It is clear that a cut in spending won't occur. So that leaves the other alternative. Inflation in itself is a painful tax that every person has to pay, couple that with higher income, capital gains, death taxes etc. It just makes it very difficult to grow at an ideal level for a sustained period of time.

 

I just don't believe that we are headed in the right direction.