Understand, there is an often used way of writing bids so that no one qualifies except who is wanted to get the bid – that’s not competitive.
- I would be remiss if I didn’t remind everybody that next week we are going to hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500 billion. Outside of this [“stimulus” bill], they are going to want another $500 billion to handle the banking system.
- The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2 billion in this bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be great, maybe, if we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the world sitting at MIT say we don’t have the technology yet to do that.
- Why would we build a $2 billion powerplant we don’t have the technology for that we know will come back and ask for another $2 billion and another $2
billion and another $2 billion when we could build a demonstration project that might cost $150 million or $200 million? There is nothing wrong with having coal-fired plants that don’t produce pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington Post said the technology isn’t there. It is a boondoggle. Why would we do that? - $88 million to study whether we ought to buy a new ice breaker for the Coast Guard. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They have two ice breakers now that they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent to what they needed to and not spend the $1 billion
- $448 million to build the Department of Homeland Security a new building.
- another $248 million for new furniture for that building; a quarter of a billion dollars for new furniture. What about the furniture the Department of Homelad Security has now?
- $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used vehicle market right now is one of the worst things we could do.
- $400 million to prevent STDs.
- $150 million for a Smithsonian museum?
- $1 billion for the 2010 census?
- $75 million for smoking cessation
- $200 million for public computer center at community colleges? Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid? there is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.
- $10 million to inspect canals
- $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into green buildings.
- $500 million for State and local fire stations?
- $1.2 billion for youth activities.
- $88 million for renovating the public health service building?
- $412 million for CDC [Centers for disease Control] buildings and property.
- $850 million for Amtrak
- $75 million to construct a new “security training” facility for State Department security officers. We alreay have four other facilities already available to train them – a new training facility that duplicates four others that we already have
- $200 million in funding for a lease – not buying, but a lease – of alternative energy vehicles on military installations?
- $524 million for information technology upgrades that the Appropriations Committee claims will create 388 jobs. If you do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job. Don’t you love the efficiency of Washington thinking
- $79 billion in additional money for the States, a “slush fund,” to bail out States and provide millions of dollars for education costs.
- $47 billion for a variety of energy prorams that are primarily focused on renewable energy
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