- $351,807 FOR 'REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER'
- $1,562,568 FOR 'MOZZARELLA CHEESE'
- $5,708,260 FOR 'PROCESS CHEESE'
- $16,784,272 FOR 'CANNED PORK'
- $1,444,100 FOR 'REPAIR DOOR BLDG 5112'
- $541,119 FOR 'INSTALL TRAFFIC SIGNAL'
UPDATE: Soon after I posted these I noticed the recovery.gov website removed the descriptions of what the money was for.
2 comments:
If the truth matters:
Statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
"Through the Recovery Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made $100 million available to the states for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which acquires food that is distributed to local organizations that assist the needy – including food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens.
The Recovery Act funds referenced in press reports allowed states to purchase ham, cheese and dairy products for these food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries that provide assistance to people who otherwise do not have access to food. This program will help reduce hunger of those hardest hit by the current economic recession.
The references to "2 pound frozen ham sliced" are to the sizes of the packaging. Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy "2 pounds of ham" are wrong. In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese. The canned pork purchase was 8,424,000 pounds at a cost of $16,784,000, or approximately $1.99 per pound.
While the principal purpose of these expenditures is to provide food to those hardest hit by these tough times, the purchases also provide a modest economic benefit of benefiting Americans working at food retailers, manufacturers and transportation companies as well as the farmers and ranchers who produce our food supply."
I saw the comment by Mr. Vilsack. I agree that some conservative news outlets were misrepresenting the ham subsidy. Making it sound like they were spending $2 million on one 2-lb ham, which obviously isn't the case and that's why I didn't include it in my list.
What does concern me, and why I posted the 6 other items, is that I don't see how any of those "stimulate" the economy.
The majority of the $787 billion dollars is not going to "shovel ready" projects (which I don't think stimulate anything, but I have less of a problem with.) Instead, they go to 'repair a door in bldg 5112' and 'replace and upgrade the dumbwaiter.' So my problem with Obama's stimulus is that I don't think it stimulates anything, except a bigger federal government.
However, I do think lowering taxes would stimulate the economy. If the gov't were to suspend all taxes for 10 months it would cost roughly the same as the $787 billion that went into the 'Reinvestment and Recovery' Act. Don't you think that would stimulate the economy? That would put an extra $1800/month in my pocket. I can promise you I'd be spending that money and buying up goods and services.
Instead, due to the increased spending at the federal level Obama will have to raise taxes. So rather than giving me more money to spend I'm going to have less... that's not very stimulating.
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