Will The Stimulus Create Jobs? Maybe. Will Americans get those jobs? Not Necessarily.

Think that just because you are a hard-working, tax-paying American Citizen who's just down on your luck, and needs a job, and if only Obama's Stimulus package would get signed into law, you could once again be gainfully employed, and be able to put bread on the table for you and your family?

Think again.

There’s been a lot of discussion from everywhere (me included) about all of the pork being stuffed into President Barack Obama's $838 Bn spending bill, it's what is being cut out that's receiving too little attention. And once a majority of ‘We The People’ realize it, ‘We’ won’t be happy. Hopefully ‘We’ will be pissed off enough to tell our ‘Representative Government’ exactly what ‘We’ think of this bill. Hopefully, it won’t be too late at that point.

What's been removed is a requirement for any businesses receiving federal stimulus cash to use an easy computer program called E-Verify to make sure that the jobs they generate go to American citizens or documented foreign workers, not illegal immigrants. Democrats in the House voted for the E-Verify component. But when the bill reached the Senate, Democrats there dropped it.

E-Verify, offered free to all employers since 2004 as a way to combat illegal Immigration, allows employers to determine the legal work status of potential employees by searching their names and Social Security numbers along with other databases.

It's cheap to operate, and more than 96 percent of job applicants are cleared by the program within minutes. This makes it almost impossible for employers to skirt the system and hire cheap, illegal labor.

Of all the garbage in the bill, there's been little if any discussion about E-Verify.
Being politicians, they can't help but accuse the other side of not caring about the American worker.

But the American Worker is who the E-Verify provision was supposed to protect. Not the construction boss or the slaughterhouse manager who wants to pay as little as possible for labor.

"It's another example of why people distrust Congress," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who had pushed for an amendment to the stimulus package mandating that E-Verify be used to certify job applicants.

John Kass spoke with Senator Sessions over the phone Tuesday minutes after the Senate narrowly passed its version of the stimulus package, 61-37. He asked Sessions how Americans will react, once they figure it out.

"I think the American people will be furious when they find out about this. The Congress tells them one thing, and then in the dead of night, the Senate maneuvers around and does another," Sessions said. "Those who know are already not happy about it. They see this as one more duplicitous act."

"They get to tell their constituents, 'See, I voted for it.' But they never really wanted it in the first place," Sessions said.

"It [E-Verify] should be the law of the land. The reason it's not tells you more about American politics—and the Democrats' courtship of Latino voters—than any speech about hope.

This isn't about denying legal immigrants work, no matter where they come from. It's about ensuring that the federal system is legit, not full of holes ripe for corruption and big-city political patronage.

Sessions said he'll keep pushing to include the E-Verify provision in the final bill that is sent to the president. And other politicians will no doubt fight for what they deem important in the bill, whether it's that $400 million to prevent sexually transmitted diseases or that $246 million tax break for Hollywood producers.

Whether safe sex and Hollywood help stimulate the economy is something I'll leave to politicians.

But what about American workers and American taxpayers?

---------------

Meanwhile, Obama campaigns for the bill, warning that without his stimulus package, we'll suffer economic catastrophe. Whatever happened to choosing hope over fear?
"I can tell you that failure to act, doing nothing, is not an option. You didn't send me to Washington to do nothing. So, we had a good debate. That's part of what democracy is about. But the time for talk is over," the president told a highly stimulated crowd Tuesday in Ft. Myers, Fla.

Translation: Debate? What debate? Let's spend it now, and we'll worry about the details later.

With credit to John Kass, as he said it better than I could.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-11-feb11,0,657719.column

More Reasons The 'Stimulus' Is A Bad Idea

Well, let's see here... The House of 'Representatives' (and I use that term loosely) passed an $819 Bn 'Economic Stimulus Package' better known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Senate bill swelled to a whopping $963 Bn, before a few of the senators suddenly thought that that might be too big of a pill to swallow for your average American, and they trimmed it down to $790 Bn on Friday... but by the time they voted and passed the bill today, a mere four days later, it had once again swelled to $838 Bn.

Think about that number for a minute- Eight Hundred Thirty-Eight BILLION Dollars. I'm sure by now several people a lot smarter than me have thought about a half a dozen different ways to put that number into perspective. Personally, its just one damn big number.

Even before Obama took office, he's been pushing to get this bill passed, and passed quickly. Now, I've said before that nobody should sign anything without reading it. But our President does not want to give lawmakers time to make an educated decision; stooping to name-calling, referring to those calling for more discussion as "obstructionists". What is it your mother used to say about peer pressure?

It seems to me that our new President may be taking a play from the previous President's playbook. And I just love the irony of Obama referring to "Revisionist History" in his speech last night, while at the same time creating his own, placing the blame for our current economic crisis on ex-President Bush, while totally ignoring the subprime mortgage meltdown that predated our 43rd President. At the same time, he used fear, just like Bush did to further his 'War on Terror'; something that Obama himself and members of his staff have criticized Bush for doing at pretty much every opportunity over the last two years of the Presidential Campaign. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

And the results are not guaranteed, so this new package isn't exactly exuding confidence. On the day that the Senate passed their version of the Stimulus package with the help of three Republicans (who ought not be re-elected for the part they played in this fiasco), the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped almost 382 points. At this point, the Dow is lower than it was on the day Obama took office. Some would argue that Obama has not yet been in office long enough to influence the markets, but with all of his economic eggs in this basket, its no wonder that if he does not manage to get this bill passed, then his administration may as well be over almost before its begun.

So how are we going to fund this stimulus package, anyway? The answer- we sell our debt. Who's buying? China. That's right, China. But they aren't exactly lining up waiting for the chance. China, the biggest foreign holder of U.S. debt, is now looking for guarantees that the value of its $682 Bn in holdings of U.S. Government debt will not be eroded by "reckless policies" (in the words of Yu Yongding, former adviser to the central bank). http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXWQEydhsoUI&refer=home

“The biggest concern for China to continue buying U.S. Treasuries is that if Obama’s stimulus doesn’t work out as expected, the Fed may have to print money to cover the deficit,” said Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong-based economist at China International Capital Corp., partly owned by Morgan Stanley. “That will cause a dollar slump and the U.S. government debt will lose its allure for being a safe haven for international investors.”

Why is this an issue? Easy. If China won't buy our debt, then Obama's stimulus package is essentially dead in the water. This is it, folks. All of our government's credit cards are maxed out, our broker is dialing the phone for our margin call, and the bookie is knocking on the door looking for the vig. Meanwhile, we're calling another bookie trying to get them to buy our action on the long shot that can't lose.

We can't spend our way out of trouble. We shouldn't even try. Why is it that our Government thinks something will work when just about every member of the lower or middle class could tell you that it won't?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Must Be Stopped

Wow.  Just wow.  There are so many factoids out there about this bill, its just staggering.  How many ways, how many statistics does everyone have to see before it hits home what an exceedingly bad idea this bill- the biggest spending bill in history- really is.

The bill is 1,588 pages- that's more than three full reams of paper!  And Obama does not want to give people time to read the bill.  "The time for talk is over.  The time for action is now.", he says.  Why?  Because the Senate has been debating the bill for FOUR WHOLE DAYS.  And in yet another show of Obama's 'bipartisanship' and efforts to 'reach across the aisle', he refers to Republicans who want to carefully review this whopper spending bill as 'obstructionists'.  Way to extend the hand of friendship there, chief.

Okay, some interesting factoids here:

If you spent $1,000,000.00 a day, each and every day, since the birth of Jesus, you would still have 70 years to go to equal the amount of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

If you stacked enough $1,000.00 bills to equal the amount of the spending bill, the stack would be over 67 miles high.

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the war in Iraq has cost us around $631,569,000.00 over the last six years.  With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Obama will have spent 25% more 

in his first month in office than Bush spent in the 5+ years since the beginning of the Iraq war.

If you divide the amount of the bill by the number of jobs its estimated to create, they 

are spending $150,000.00 for each job created.

Some of the line items ('pork') in the bill:

25 million to create ATV trails
650 million to buy cars for federal employees
75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI
248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Securities headquarters
400 million to the CDC to prevent STD’s
412 million for CDC property and buildings
820 Million to prevent pandemic influenza
6 billion for Special Education
???? National Institute of Health 
1 billion for the 2010 census

246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers
Giving $100 a month to people who lost their jobs in this recession
34 million to the commerce department
Only 21 Billion dollars goes to small business. That’s only 3% of the bill..
125 million for the DC sewer system
16 billion dollars to repair schools – the local city system should take care of that… not federal government
5.5 million for transportation
2.25 million neighbor stimulation program
5 million to upgrade local firestations – the federal government shouldn’t be involved in that
9 billion in telecommunication
Rebuilding and developing Golf courses, Dog parks, Parking garages, Museums, Skateboard park, etc.
8.4 million for polar bear exhibits
100,000 to create a lung cop guard in sulfur creek
500,000 sunset view dog park
Several million for Golf courses, some in Treport LA, MN, MA, St. Louis, MO, Nebraska, Kuai,  HI
27 million dollar Sanitation truck wash in Bridgeport, CT..

This bill passed the House 244-188, without a single Republican vote in favor. As a matter of 

fact, in the only real show of bipartisanship shown throughout this whole order was the 11 

Democrats that broke ranks and voted with the Republicans and voted against the bill.

The more time this bill sits in Congress, the more We, The People are finding out about it, the more we are not liking what we are hearing.

Have some time on your hands?  Maybe a wicked case of insomnia?  You can read the bill in all its legalese glory here: http://readthestimulus.org/hr1_text.pdf

There's still time- email and call the Republican Senators who may waver and give the Senate the to votes it needs to pass this unconscionable piece of legislation.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Phone: Collins (202) 224-2523
Fax: Fax: (202) 224-2693
Website
413 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Phone: (202) 224-5344
Toll Free: (800) 432-1599
Fax: (202) 224-1946
Website
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)

Phone: (202) 224-4254
Fax: 202-228-1229
Website
711 Hart Building
Washington , DC 20510

iPhone App of the Week

This week's App of the week is about as useless as last week's was useful.  But that's not the point of Fieldrunners.  Fieldrunners is such a simple game to learn, but its maddeningly difficult to master.

I can barely make it past level 100, which unlocks the 'endless' mode, topping out at Level 115, with a score of 312,775, but that's not the point.  The point is that this game is possibly one of the most addictive iPhone gams out there today.  The concept is so simple- wave after wave of increasingly quick and robust enemies, and you need to kill them before they can breach your stronghold.  Sounds easy, right?  That's what I thought before I spent days trying to outsmart the game and lost.

The graphics are excellent- smooth and high quality.  Play it once and you're hooked!  For the hours of entertainment it provides, its a bargain at $4.99.

I would like to see more than two maps, but based on the reviews, I know I'm not alone, so hopefully we will see some new maps in the next update or two.

Kudos, Subatomic Studios.  Good idea, great execution, great app.