Repubs release list

[tlynn78]

What is with men and math?

Their standards are way too high.

lol - they should be doing taxes for appointees - I certainly shouldn't!

t.

[BigDrawMan]

we're #3!!
I'm all for the bill!!

WTG Arlen!!

I was talking to some cement guy, he said his company is in for a banner year due to water and sewer projects(unaffiliated with stimulus bill).So...it would be a good idea to measure capacit of construction companied to do the work in a specified time period per region.

and per tgirlies lead paint comment:

Lead paint was banned in 1978, though most companies stopped making it pre 1970.So, it is old which causes problems due to its turning into dust which is breathed by youngsters which leads to mental problems.many people think kiddos eting paint chips is the problem.It aint.Its usually the dust caused by friction in the opening and closing of painted wood windows.

[ulysses5019]

Where's the National Avatar Headquarter building?

[gsabc]

Speaking of men and math ...

If my addition is correct, the total cost of the list is just over $19 billion, representing a whopping 2.3% of the entire $825 billion. Most of the items don't belong in an economic stimulus bill, but they occupy a very small part of the complete package. Shame on the Dems for giving the Republicans such great fodder for the typical political "much ado about minutiae".

[nitrah55]

If it's stimulus, it should be something that gets people working fast. Construction, repair, retro fitting stuff is great for this. But, for me it's less of an issue whether a given project is real important than it is can we start it quick and get people paid for it. Which is why I thought sprucing up the national Mall is a good idea- you can start fast get people working, and ps, the mall needs the work. Stopping smoking- great idea, but we should hold off on that for next year, honest.

[Sisyphean Fan]

Here is a site that will let you find out what is proposed for your state or town.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

This is the piggiest pork bill ever. In addition to larger multimillion-dollar projects, my town includes a request of less than $72,000 for sidewalks. WTF? My town can afford to build and repair its own sidewalks without federal help. They don't all have to be done the same week.

I looked over the list. My town would be getting nada.

I did find the state breakdowns of interest. (I rounded)

California - $23,200,000,000
Texas - $10.800,000,000
Pennsylvania - $4,500,000,000
NY - $1,300,000,000
Colorado - $2,500,000,000
Massachusetts - $1,100,000,000
Montana - $250,000,000
Wyoming - $150,600,000

I did not look at all of the states.

Nebraska wants a mere 380,000,000, but there are apparently only two cities in the entire state.

It also seems that Florida, Ohio and Connecticut have a disproportionate number of projects for their relative size.

[silverscreenselect]

It also seems that Florida, Ohio and Connecticut have a disproportionate number of projects for their relative size.

If you accept the premise that a valid purpose of the stimulus is to get people back to work, then the unemployment rate, especially in the sectors in which the stimulus is likely to help, is more important than the overall population of a city or state.

[andrewjackson]

Here is a site that will let you find out what is proposed for your state or town.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

This is the piggiest pork bill ever. In addition to larger multimillion-dollar projects, my town includes a request of less than $72,000 for sidewalks. WTF? My town can afford to build and repair its own sidewalks without federal help. They don't all have to be done the same week.

I looked over the list. My town would be getting nada.

I did find the state breakdowns of interest. (I rounded)

California - $23,200,000,000
Texas - $10.800,000,000
Pennsylvania - $4,500,000,000
NY - $1,300,000,000
Colorado - $2,500,000,000
Massachusetts - $1,100,000,000
Montana - $250,000,000
Wyoming - $150,600,000

I did not look at all of the states.

Nebraska wants a mere 380,000,000, but there are apparently only two cities in the entire state.

It also seems that Florida, Ohio and Connecticut have a disproportionate number of projects for their relative size.

I was looking at some of the projects and they seem to lump some municipalities together. For instance, Muncie, IN is the only city listed near where I grew up but there are projects listed under Muncie that are in small towns near Muncie. I'm not sure why it says Muncie when it is not in Muncie.

That may or may not be similar on other lists.

[earendel]

FWIW I heard this morning that the subsidy for motion picture studios to purchase film has been removed from the stimulus bill. Surely a triumph of good sense.

[wintergreen48]

Here is a site that will let you find out what is proposed for your state or town.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

This is the piggiest pork bill ever. In addition to larger multimillion-dollar projects, my town includes a request of less than $72,000 for sidewalks. WTF? My town can afford to build and repair its own sidewalks without federal help. They don't all have to be done the same week.

Jeepers, 400 projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and not ONE in Richmond or in any of the surrounding Counties. As our Misfortune 500 companies keep going belly up (used to have about 14 of them, but about half of them are now dead or dying), we sure could use some of that there money for some jobs.

[minimetoo26]

Here is a site that will let you find out what is proposed for your state or town.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

This is the piggiest pork bill ever. In addition to larger multimillion-dollar projects, my town includes a request of less than $72,000 for sidewalks. WTF? My town can afford to build and repair its own sidewalks without federal help. They don't all have to be done the same week.

Jeepers, 400 projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and not ONE in Richmond or in any of the surrounding Counties. As our Misfortune 500 companies keep going belly up (used to have about 14 of them, but about half of them are now dead or dying), we sure could use some of that there money for some jobs.

Norfolk has a bunch, but I only saw three that I considered iffy. The soundwalls, Bay Oak Parks, and landscaping for the light rail that hasn't been built yet are dispensible. But mostly they're looking to do something to keep the downtown from flooding all the time, which is very necessary. You can't get in or out after a rain storm, then the roads crack and the pipes break and it floods all over again. The city is so old they have a cannonball embedded in the wall of one of the buildings in the court complex and if the electrical systems are anything like what was in my apartment building, they really need to upgrade.

Virginia Beach could probably skip the trails and trees (even though I'm big on that kind of stuff, personally) and the aquarium can pay for its own damn walkway, or at least stop calling me and hounding me for more money (and the call center is based in Las Vegas, so I think they're gambling away my membership fees even if they aren't). The bridge replacement is probably necessary, as are the road projects.

[Bob Juch]

FWIW I heard this morning that the subsidy for motion picture studios to purchase film has been removed from the stimulus bill. Surely a triumph of good sense.

There must be despair in Rochester, NY.

[Bob Juch]

Here is a site that will let you find out what is proposed for your state or town.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

This is the piggiest pork bill ever. In addition to larger multimillion-dollar projects, my town includes a request of less than $72,000 for sidewalks. WTF? My town can afford to build and repair its own sidewalks without federal help. They don't all have to be done the same week.

Jeepers, 400 projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and not ONE in Richmond or in any of the surrounding Counties. As our Misfortune 500 companies keep going belly up (used to have about 14 of them, but about half of them are now dead or dying), we sure could use some of that there money for some jobs.

Is COF getting any bailout money?

[Estonut]

It also seems that Florida, Ohio and Connecticut have a disproportionate number of projects for their relative size.

If you accept the premise that a valid purpose of the stimulus is to get people back to work, then the unemployment rate, especially in the sectors in which the stimulus is likely to help, is more important than the overall population of a city or state.

By that statement, you are saying that a project for a city of 10 people where 5 are unemployed is more important than a project for a city of a million people with a 5% unemployment rate.

[silverscreenselect]

It also seems that Florida, Ohio and Connecticut have a disproportionate number of projects for their relative size.

If you accept the premise that a valid purpose of the stimulus is to get people back to work, then the unemployment rate, especially in the sectors in which the stimulus is likely to help, is more important than the overall population of a city or state.

By that statement, you are saying that a project for a city of 10 people where 5 are unemployed is more important than a project for a city of a million people with a 5% unemployment rate.

No, but a somewhat smaller city or state, that has a somewhat larger unemployment rate, especially in those sectors that the project is likely to help would receive more benefit from a stimulus package, and that should be taken into account.

Frankly, what this bill needs, and what it hasn't gotten on either side, is a careful cost-benefit analysis of each proposed expenditure (and tax cut) to see if the gains outweight the costs. Instead, you had Democrats trying to cram every possible bit of pork and long term social project in while Republicans, who apparently had no concerns whatsoever for fiscal responsibility over the last eight years, issuing an equally blanket condemnation of "wasteful" spending.

This isn't a stimulus bill as far as either side is concerned. It's politicking plain and simple.

[wintergreen48]

Here is a site that will let you find out what is proposed for your state or town.

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

This is the piggiest pork bill ever. In addition to larger multimillion-dollar projects, my town includes a request of less than $72,000 for sidewalks. WTF? My town can afford to build and repair its own sidewalks without federal help. They don't all have to be done the same week.

Jeepers, 400 projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and not ONE in Richmond or in any of the surrounding Counties. As our Misfortune 500 companies keep going belly up (used to have about 14 of them, but about half of them are now dead or dying), we sure could use some of that there money for some jobs.

Is COF getting any bailout money?

Yes and no. COF is extremely well capitalized and has no funding or other problems (loan defaults are up, as they are elsewhere, but have not reached disaster proportions; COF was never big in mortgage lending anyway, and it when it acquired a bank that owned a mortgage lending subsidiary, it shut that business down almost immediately after the deal closed), but it turns out that COF qualifies for TARP money because the 'qualifications' are really non-existent (which is part of the typical Big Government response to problems-- draft some 900-page bill that no one reads and throw a lot of money at the problem, and worry about details afterward), so COF applied for and got a bunch of money, which they then used to buy another bank (Chevy Chase Bank, up in the DC area). When you factor in all the perks and benefits of the TARP program, COF pretty much managed to acquire Chevy Chase-- which was in pretty good shape, this was not a troubled bank sale-- for (almost) free.

The proposal to limit the compensation of employees of banks that accept TARP money to $500,000 will not have much real impact on COF: the CEO has not taken any salary at all for over ten years, everything he has ever received (and much of what the rest of the Important People have received over the years) is in stock options, which have no value at all unless the stock price goes up, which it is not doing and has not been doing for a while (the CEO shows up on some of those lists of 'highly paid' executives, but that is just because stock options that he received ten years ago vested long ago, and they have 10-year expirations, so that he has to sell them or lose them; the COF's stock price used to move up very well, and although his options were all priced at market value when they were issued in the 1990's, he has made a lot of money in the last few years simply because of the huge increase in the stock price over time; all of the options that he still owns, though, are worthless, the stock now being at a 10-year low, so that if he were to sell the options, he would actually have to pay money).