Jeanne Cummings of Politico says Obama’s losing the stimulus message war
At this crucial juncture in the push to pass an economic recovery package, President Obama finds himself in the most unlikely of places: He is losing the message war.
And what message is that?
to “get this thing back on track.”
Let’s look at “this thing” of the so-called stimulus, with the help of my friend Rick Moran:
• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.
• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.
• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.
• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.
• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into “green” buildings.
• $500 million for state and local fire stations.
• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.
• $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs.
• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.
• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.
• $160 million for “paid volunteers” at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.
• $850 million for Amtrak.
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.
• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.
• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.
But according to the Obama team, it’s all a matter of the Jetsons versus the Flinstones because anyone opposing their far-ahead ideas must be doing it because they’re stuck in the stone age and listens to Rush Limbaugh instead of paying attention to (in Cummings’s words) Obama’s gifted oratory.
I guess that must include the Europeans, too.
UPDATE
A J Strata has the graph:
That’s dandy! If as the GW crowd argues the polar ice cap is retreating then the answer of course is to only build one dedicated ice breaker for the USCG instead of the asked for five. The current three all qualify as museum pieces and should be retired. And along with peace, love and understanding the new ship will not be designed to convert to different aramament packages which means that the top to bottom newly designed ice breaking frigate the Russians have laid the keel for will be the only heavily armed all weather year round ship in the Polar Sea.