Republicans Are Now Good for Exactly…….. Nothing!

By

David Stockman’s Contra Corner

April 11, 2020

(Excerpted)

“In less than a month, they have passed the $8.3 billion vaccine bill, the $100 billion relief and paid leave package and the $2.2 trillion Everything Bailout, and are now racing toward another $1.0 trillion interim CARES 2 funding bill to essentially double-down on all the outrageous pork and Free Stuff that was contained in CARES 1, which the House did not bother to even debate or approve by recorded vote.

And, alas, all of this is preliminary to the impending “stimulus/infrastructure” bill where the bidding starts at $2 trillion, meaning that the Imperial City is in the throes of a fiscal bacchanalia that defies imagination. It will leave America with unspeakable debts, political dysfunction and economic debilitation for years, if not decades, to come.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(EXCERPTED)

So we return to our theme: Here is but a sample (annotated in bold by a wag not drinking the Cool-Aid) of the disgusting tribute that the Donald and his GOP minions paid to Nancy, Chuckles and the beltway lifers for the Everything Bailouts which shouldn’t even be happening:

$25,000,000 for additional salary for House of Representatives (blows your mind, right off the bat!)

$100,000,000 to NASA (because, who knows why?)

$20,000,000,000 to the USPS (because, why the hell not?)

$300,000,000 to the Endowment for the Arts (Ah, screw it – let’s do it! They’ll never know)

$300,000,000 for the Endowment for the Humanities (because, not that many people even knew that was a thing?)

$15,000,000 for Veterans Employment Training (for when the GI Bill isn’t enough)

$435,000,000 for mental health support (Man, oh man, that’s a lot of suicide hotlines)

$30,000,000,000 for the Department of Education stabilization fund (Whoa, that’s a big one! Wonder how much goes to the NEA?)

$200,000,000 to Safe Schools Emergency Response to Violence Program (I guess the virus is kind of violent)

$300,000,000 to Public Broadcasting (NPR has to be bought and paid for by somebody. That somebody is you.)

$500,000,000 to Museums and Libraries (Who the hell knows how we are going to use it?)

$720,000,000 to Social Security Admin (But get this – of this, only $200,000,000 is to benefit people. The rest is for admin costs.)

$25,000,000 for Cleaning supplies for the Capitol Building (Seriously, it’s on page 136)

Still reading through this crap?

$7,500,000 to the Smithsonian for additional salaries (Wait a minute, what about the virus?)  Peak Trump: The Undrai… David A. Stockman Best Price: $12.72 Buy New $43.07 (as of 11:40 EST – Details)

$35,000,000 to the JFK Center for performing Arts (See above)

$3,000,000,000 upgrade to the IT department at the VA (I guess $3 billion ought to cover it.)

$315,000,000 for State Department Diplomatic Programs (What the hell does this mean?)

$95,000,000 for the Agency of International Development (What is this? Let’s keep the money here and clean up the streets of S.F. and L.A.)

$300,000,000 for International Disaster Assistance (Put this and the next one together and we’re starting to look pretty compassionate – Globally, anyway)

$300,000,000 for Migrant and Refugee Assistance (page 147)

$90,000,000 for the Peace Corp page 148 (Specifically to fight CoVid-19?)

$13,000,000 to Howard University page 121 (Wonder what the University did to deserve this?)

$9,000,000 Misc. Senate Expenses page 134 (Otherwise known as Petty Cash – maybe it’s needed to settle all them, there Harassment claims?)

$100,000,000 to Essential Air carriers page 162 (This is OK because the Airlines are going to need billions in loans to keep them afloat. Besides, $100 mil is chump change)

$40,000,000,000 goes to the Take Responsibility to Workers and Families Act page 164 (This sounds like it’s direct payments for workers. Let’s hope so)

$1,000,000,000 Airlines Recycle and Save Program page 163 (A cool $1 Billion? What’s the hell is this program all about?)

$25,000,000 to the FAA for administrative costs page 165 (Not even gonna ask)

$492,000,000 to National Railroad Passenger Corporation page 167 (AMTRAK – a.k.a. THE BIG OLD MONEY PIT)

$526,000,000 Grants to AMTRAK to remain available, IF NEEDED, through 2021 page 168 (“IF NEEDED?, IF NEEDED !” ) Tell me, what are the odds that it doesn’t go unused? – Hidden on page 174 the Secretary of Transportation has 7 days to allocate the funds and notify Congress.

$25,000,000,000 for Transit Infrastructure page 169 (Why isn’t this in a separate bill? We need it, but what’s it doing in a Coronavirus bill?)

$3,000,000 Maritime Administration page 172 (Who knows? It’s a piddling amount anyway)

$5,000,000 Salaries and Expenses Office of the Inspector General page 172 (This office has been pretty busy the last couple of years) No voter ID to get a ballot , and anonymous “ballot harvesting” page 650 (Hmmmm. Does the phrase “voter fraud” come to mind? Any price tag? What’s ballot harvesting?”)

$2,500,000 Public and Indian Housing page 175 (CoVid-19 related?)

$5,000,000 Community Planning and Development page 175 (See above)

$2,500,000 Office of Housing (See above)

$1,500,000,000 Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Office of Public and Indian Housing. (See above)

$1,000,000,000 of which can be used as “additional administrative and other expenses”. page 176 (That’s a billion we’re talking about here – a billion, with a “b”)

$720,000,000 to the public housing fund page 177 (CoVid-19 related?)

$100,000,000 for Community Block Grants for Native Americans page 183 (See above)

$250,000,000 for Housing Block Grants for Tribes page 182 (See above)

$130,000,000 for AIDS Housing page 185. $20,000,000 of which goes to one time grantees, whatever that means page 186 (See above)

$15,000,000,000 for the Community Development Fund page 188 (That’s $15 Billion!) (Only $10,000,000 of which is set aside for infrastructure for fighting infectious Disease page 191)

$5,000,000,000 in Homeless Assistance page 193 (Aaahhh, what’s another $5Billion?)

$100,000,000,000 for Rental Assistance – page 198 (Or another $100 Billion, for that matter?)

An additional $7,000,000 to enforce the Fair Housing Act page 203

Paid Family Leave for Sickness is 2 paid work weeks – page 213

Emergency Family Leave (Now applies to all employers, not just companies over 500 employees – page 208)

Guarantees paid leave to employees who have an in-law who gets sick – page 209 (In-law? Really?)

Opens up leave for someone you are in a “committed relationships with” – page 212 (What if there’s more than one? There could be several)

$1,000,000,000 for more Obama-phones! (That’s right, folks. A cool $Billion. Do you have any idea how stupid your Congressman thinks you are?)

Still reading……?

$227,000,000 for grants to States for youth activities – page 80

261,000,000 for grants to States for dislocated worker employment and training activities, including supportive services and needs-related payments; page 80

$10,000,000 for Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker programs (What the hell? Thought this was supposed to be about the virus)

$100,000,000 for ‘‘Job Corps’’ (See above)

$15,000,000 for ‘‘Program Administration’’ (Who would want a program without an administrator or two)

$6,500,000, to the ‘‘Wage and Hour Division’’ (Who knows?)

$30,000,000, to OSHA (Guess they can’t get by on the fines they impose)

$10,000,000 for Susan Harwood training grants (You can bet this money will be well spent)

$1,300,000,000, for ‘‘Primary Health Care’’ (A billion-three? Who gets to spend this?)

$75,000,000, for ‘‘Student Aid Administration’’ (Enhancing our student debt fiasco)

$9,500,000,000, for ‘‘Higher Education’’ (Come on now! Somebody should be asked to explain this. $9.5 Billion? Really? Higher Education? Higher than what?)

As we said, when you have a GOP White House and Senate, exactly what good is it in the face of this unconscionable larceny?

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