• Home
  • Contact
The Lakewood Times

Sandy Bill Full Of Pork-What Is Left For Those In Need?

1/4/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
Now that the Sandy relief bill is back on track thanks to Governor Christie and his attacks on John Boehner and his heartless Republicans, we can discuss what their reasons were for ignoring this much needed bill. Although our Governor was right to have demanded passage of this bill to help rebuild his storm ravaged state, we must acknowledge that some politicians may have wanted to cancel the bill due to the large mount of extras, or pork, that was added to the bill by the Senate. 

The pork-barrel feast includes:
$8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments.
$150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska 
$2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.

Now that the Sandy relief bill is back on track thanks to Governor Christie and his attacks on John Boehner and his heartless Republicans, we can discuss what their reasons were for ignoring this much needed bill. Although our Governor was right to have demanded passage of this bill to help rebuild his storm ravaged state, we must acknowledge that some politicians may have wanted to cancel the bill due to the large mount of extras, or pork, that was added to the bill by the Senate. 

The pork-barrel feast includes:
$8 million to buy cars and equipment for the Homeland Security and Justice departments.
$150 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out to fisheries in Alaska
$2 million for the Smithsonian Institution to repair museum roofs in DC.

An eye-popping $13 billion would go to “mitigation” projects to prepare for future storms. Much of this money will probably end up as unnecessary construction projects and wasted by well connected contractors. It is doubtful that anything will be built that could prevent this from occurring again.
$207 million for the VA Manhattan Medical Center
$41 million to fix up eight military bases along the storm’s path, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
$4 million for repairs at Kennedy Space Center in Florida
$3.3 million for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center
$1.1 million to repair national cemeteries.
$58.8 million for forest restoration on private land.
$197 million “to… protect coastal ecosystems and habitat impacted by Hurricane Sandy.”
$10.78 billion for public transportation, most of which is allocated to future construction and improvements, not disaster relief.
$17 billion for wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program which is used by politicians to repay donors and supporters for helping keep them in office.

There once was an old man that came to a rich businessman to collect for a Kollel. The businessman asked the collector, "so tell me, what percent do you take for collecting?"
"Fifty percent" he answered.
"And how much does the guy that drives you to the rich people's homes get?" "Also fifty percent".
"So what is left for the kollel students?"
"They're young and strong, let them go to work!!"

In the end we will be lucky if we see ten percent of the money from this bill go to help rebuild people's homes and businesses.
Government at its best.

1 Comment
Shlomo
1/4/2013 12:28:37 am

nothing for the VAAD?

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Tweets by @hhforsenate

    Archives

    October 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All
    App Reviews
    Business
    Downtown
    Entertainment
    Ethics
    Jewish Life
    News
    Opinion
    Politics
    Senior View

    RSS Feed