My Government Is Spending $825 Billion on a Stimulus Package and I Got Less Than the National Mall Revitalization Program?

Nick Gillespie | January 26, 2009

Reason Foundation researcher and Reason.com contributor Anthony Randazzo has combed through the stimulus bill and calculates we're looking at $136,752,000,000 in spending on new programs (or programs that had been authorized or unfunded in the past.

Go here for a list that includes the National Mall Revitalization ($200 million), Youth Summer Jobs Program ($1.2 billion), Energy Retrofit Grants for Elderly, Disablity and Sec. 8 Housing ($2.5 billion), and more. The first rule of government hole-digging? When you're in a hole, spend a billion dollars on a program for kids to keep digging.

Comments

spambot|1.26.09 @ 2:10PM|#

I mean how exactly is all this going to put more money in my pocket which is the only thing that will get me buying stuff again?

Abdul|1.26.09 @ 2:10PM|#

The first rule of government hole-digging? When you're in a hole, spend a billion dollars on a program for kids to keep digging.

Digging? That, sir, is a shovel-enhanced multi-ethnic geostratal cooperation seminar and I, for one, am proud to fling my taxes into it.

|1.26.09 @ 2:12PM|#

I mean how exactly is all this going to put more money in my pocket which is the only thing that will get me buying stuff again?

If you are politically well-connected with Our Masters in D.C., this will put money in your pocket.

If you're not, well, whose fault is that?

|1.26.09 @ 2:23PM|#

Did they disband the GAO when I wasn't looking?

Other Matt|1.26.09 @ 2:32PM|#

If you are politically well-connected with Our Masters in D.C., this will put money in your pocket.

What about the UberLords in Chicago, do they count? I mean, I paid, I should get to play and all that.

sage|1.26.09 @ 2:37PM|#

That list is pretty funny.

Comparative Effectiveness Research ($1.1 Billion)

I shall now go back and find something to top that.

sage|1.26.09 @ 2:39PM|#

Federal Government Vehicle Fleet Replacement* ($600 Million)

Wow, they're only going to replace 1/1000th of the fleet? Way to be frugal, dude.

|1.26.09 @ 2:42PM|#

Lotta sweet jobs there, and they aren't going to libertopians.

Bet you guys wish you donated to Obama now.

|1.26.09 @ 2:50PM|#

I keep asking myself "How the fuck are these crooks going to keep their phoney baloney jobs when this money doesn't solve anything?"

Then I remember the american voter.

We are so fucked.

Taktix®|1.26.09 @ 3:28PM|#

National Mall Revitalization ($200 million)

What like shopping malls? I wouldn't be surprised.

There's a dead mall in Pittsburgh that is a monument to poor city planning. It was built hastily by the city for local revitalization or some such. Problem is, they built it before the fill settled, so it's sinking, and it's in a valley right next to I-376, so when large trucks go by (and they do all the time), the items on the mall's shelves shake and fall off.

Also, one particularly bad backfire caused the floor of the K-Mart to split like an earthquake in movies. The city just stuck steel plates over it and went on their merry way.

It's called Parkway Center Mall, and you should be able to find it on DeadMalls.com

Taktix®|1.26.09 @ 3:31PM|#

Oh yeah, and Yo, Fuck Stimulus!

|1.26.09 @ 3:46PM|#

I feel nauseous.

Xeones|1.26.09 @ 4:35PM|#

It certainly does stimulate one's gag reflex.