Stimulus

[hertinkness]

OK- I won't lie. In my field, I'd probably see a pretty big benefit from the current stimulus package. I'm rooting for it to pass in its current form for selfish reasons. I want to have a job, and I want my friends to keep theirs. Some people think it's too heavy on "pork."

But let's take a look at what's being labeled pork:

You can basically organize it into categories based on what Republicans hate. For example, there's the "Fuck public safety" category, in which the $10 million for urban canals and the $100 million to reduce lead paint hazards fall. Then, there's the "Fuck science" category- the $150 million for the Smithsonian and the $412 million for the CDC fits into this one quite nicely. Then there's the favorite "Fuck poor people" category, where we find most of these items, but especially the $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal (read: how DARE those hicks demand to not marinate in their own filth!), $25 million for tribal anti-addiction programs, and $1.2 billion for youth summer job programs. But really, all of these objections can fit into one big box, which sums up the current Republican party's motto pretty well:

"Fuck responsibility."

Comments

[boudiceaborn.livejournal.com]

My dad's pretty excited about the science category, because the 3.5 billion going to the NIH will really help. Someone in his lab has a really good grant in with them, and they've been asked to revise it twice. It was scored 28% last time (better than 72% of grants) but they still didn't fund it because their cutoff has been dropped to 18% or so with their cutbacks. If they revise it a bit more and the NIH lowers their threshhold, it could make a big difference for the company.

I'm sure in all this stimulus there are plenty of large amounts of money going to causes that I think aren't worthy...but at the moment it's about keeping people in jobs, and as long as there aren't crooked dealings I'm okay with bridges to nowhere and some faith-based initiatives grants.