Stimulus: More Pork Than A Jimmy Dean Sausage

A 5,593-page bill, cleverly disguised as COVID relief package, is officially the porkiest bill in Congressional history.  This nearly $2 trillion spending boondoggle comes on the heels of a $2.3 trillion pandemic assistance bill approved in December. That's $4 trillion in tax dollars in less than four months.

Early estimates are the spending spree will increase the nation's debt by $2 trillion over a decade.  The current national debt is a mind-numbing $27.4 trillion (as of March 13).  Since 2000, your federal government has added $25.4 trillion in debt.  That is a 1,150% increase in a little more than 20 years.

A review of the stimulus monstrosity reveals Congress stealthily inserted scores of non-Coronavirus items in the bill to keep Americans clueless.  The parasite media trumpeted the $1,400 stimulus checks, but glossed over the billions of dollars earmarked for special-interest, pork barrel projects.

National Public Radio (NPR) gushed: "Life Changing Stimulus Checks Go Out."  The Washington Post and USA Today deemed the stimulus a lifeline to a nation in an economic crisis. Yet government data confirms companies are hiring, unemployment is dipping and businesses are reopening.  

The bill, shrewdly named the American Rescue Plan Act, carries an official price tag of $1.9 trillion for what the drafters boast is a measure combining the "full resources of the federal government to protect the health and well-being of all Americans."  What a crock. This bill is a gusher for big government.

To start, those media-ballyhooed $1,400 stimulus checks represent a measly $413 billion in cash payments directly to Americans making less than $75,000.  The remaining $1.48 trillion of the budget-buster flows to virtually every government agency and a raft of progressive, liberal goodies.

If the Biden administration believes jobs are the top issue, then why so little of the $1.9 trillion went to Americans who are out-of-work? No matter how many times Biden's mouthpieces brand this a jobs bill, the piddling amount dedicated to payments to unemployed is a sign of duplicity. 

As part of its propaganda willingly echoed by the legacy media, the bills proponents championed the spending on vaccines, testing and other pandemic medical supplies. The actual dollar figure for these projects is $75 billion, a mere pittance of the $1.9 trillion. 

The lion's share of the fountain of money is being showered on a laundry list of non-Coronavirus earmarks.  

A revolting $350 billion is rained on blue-states and local governments, including a $42.2 billion bail out for California.  That is a gift from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to her home state. California is expected to end the fiscal year with a $10 billion surplus.  How can anyone justify this largess?

Feeding the federal agencies and departments in The Swamp was a priority for Democrats, who own this engorged spending orgy since not one single Republican voted for this big government wish-list. Here are a few examples:

• $9.5 billion for Department of Agriculture
• $1.886 billion for the Department of Commerce
• $1 billion for the Department of Justice
• $10.5 billion for the Department of Defense
• $295.15 million for the General Services Administration
• $45.9 billion for Homeland Security
• $2.04 billion for the Interior, Environment and related agencies
• $30.9 billion for the Department of Education
• $93.1 million for the Legislative Branch, including the Senate and House
• $31.1 billion for the Department of Transportation
• $674 million for the Department of State
• $70.8 million to the U.S. Forrest Service
• $20.6 million to the Department of Interior/Bureau of Reclamation

In each of these line-item expenditures, the bill's Democrat authors added language about the pandemic in a thinly veiled attempt to justify the mammoth spending on departments and agencies already funded through the annual Congressional budget.  More money equals bigger government.  

As egregious as funneling more money to the government sounds, there are flagrant examples of special interest pay-offs stuffed into the omnibus bill, which most members of Congress didn't have the time or the inclination to read.  As Speaker Pelosi once crowed, "We have to pass the bill to see what's in it."

Hold your nose while you read these excesses funded by your taxpaying dollars:

• $14.25 billion for colleges to make up for lost revenues 
• $75 million for Public Broadcasting
• $5 million for Railroad Retirement Board
• $4 billion for homeless assistance 
• $3 million for Forrest and Rangeland Research
• $12.5 million for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
• $7.5 million for the Smithsonian Institution 
• $25 million for the Kennedy Center, currently closed
• $75 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
• $75 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities
• $13 million for Howard University
• $7 million for Gallaudet University
• $800 million in additional foreign food aid
• $1.5 million for the Seaway International Bridge connecting New York to Canada
• $100 million on construction of an underground rail linking San Francisco to Silicon Valley
• $86 billion to bail out 185 multi-employer pension plans for unions and industry

If your stomach is churning and your blood pressure is spiking, you may want to stop reading unless you have 9-1-1 on your speed dial. The spending outlined to this point is just the tip of an Antarctica iceberg.  Listed below are more glaring examples of preposterous spending in the name of COVID.

• $30 billion in transit grants through fiscal year 2024
• $1.5 billion to Amtrak, already sitting on $1 billion in unspent aid from previous relief bills
• $3.5 billion for Child Care grants to states to assist child care providers
• $600 million for additional paid leave for federal employees and postal workers
• $15 billion for airline payroll support
• Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) for labor unions
• Allows stimulus checks for the 387,642 so-called Dreamers (DACA) residents 
• $34 billion for subsidies for insurance premiums, the largest expansion of Obamacare
• Grants stimulus checks to mixed immigration status families, including if one parent is an illegal immigrant 
• $130 billion to schools, even if they remain closed (This is on top of the $110 billion granted in the December stimulus bill.)
• $3 billion in aid to supplement payroll costs for some aircraft manufacturers
• $40 million for Student Aid administration
• $65 million for housing opportunities for persons with HIV/AIDS 

The Democrat legislation is chocked with sleights of hand to avoid blowback from voters.  For example, there is a $50 million line item for family planning.  There is no mention of the recipient. No doubt the bestowal of cash will flow into the coffers of Planned Parenthood.

However, every fact checker from Politico to Snopes dutifully points out Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the bill.  The abortion and reproductive health organization will be required to send a proposal to apply for the funds, the fact-checkers claim.  This is cover-up to quell public outrage.

It is fair to point out there was pork in the previous spending bills, including the December stimulus which included $10 million for gender studies in Pakistan.  The difference is the legacy media made it a major part of its reporting.  Not so under Mr. Biden.  Now it camouflages the pork. 

This pork-wrapped-in-a-stimulus breakfast taco, is an insult to Americans' intelligence.  The media and Democrats believe taxpayers--that's you dear reader--are too brainless to see through the waste and deceitfulness.  They are counting on your not to notice their dishonesty and to remain mum. 

Helping out those who have lost jobs during the pandemic business lockdown is a noble cause.  That's what this stimulus bill should have addressed and little else. Americans need to confront their elected officials and give them an earful.  Tell them to keep the pork in the Swamp's pig sty.