Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

Owen

Everything but tech support.
}

2017, 21 Dec 20

Stimulus Bill Packed with Pork and Pet Projects

Again… follow the money. This bill isn’t about the $600 checks. That is just the fig leaf for an omnibus spending boondoggle to pay for a laundry list of pet projects for politicians.

A number of more obscure provisions have been tucked into the 5,000-plus page stimulus bill that Congress is expected to pass later Monday night.

The bill would green-light the creation of two new Smithsonians on the National Mall, could punish illegal streamers for up to 10 years and calls it a ‘clear abuse’ if China or any other country interferes with Tibet’s process for recognizing its next Dalai Lama.

The package also decriminalizes unauthorized uses of Smokey Bear, gives tax breaks to racehorse owners and bans the U.S. Postal Service from handling e-cigarettes.

And here I am agreeing with AOC.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive New York Democrat, came out against the provision in a strongly worded Monday evening tweet.

‘This is why Congress needs time to actually read this package before voting on it. Members of Congress have not read this bill. It’s over 5000 pages, arrived at 2pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in 2 hours,’ Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, sharing The Hollywood Reporter’s story about the bill including language that would make illegal streaming a felony.

‘This isn’t governance. It’s hostage-taking,’ Ocasio-Cortez said.

}

2017, 21 December 2020

8 Comments

  1. Merlin

    COVID relief sure smells a lot like pork.

  2. Jason

    Well, if we use the previous “stimulus” numbers, 159 million Americans will receive $600 dollars.  That’s 95 Billion of the 1.4 Trillion.

  3. Kevin Scheunemann

    Awful bill.

  4. Owen

    There appears to be a good thing in this shit bill.

    There’s always a nice peanut in every stinkin’ loaf.

  5. Merlin

    Maybe the intent is good, but this looks ripe for abuse.

    Provider/insurer arbitration is going to end up just like current negotiated contractual services with the price paid by consumers perpetually on the increase. They’ll simply set arbitration results to be, ah, mutually acceptable for out-of-network services. Another pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later, but-you’re-going-to-pay-me schemes.

    I hope that effective date of 1/1/2022 is a typo.

  6. Mar

    Another good thing from the bill is that President Trump got more money to continue to build the wall on the Southern border.
    So much for the democrat opposition to the wall.

  7. MjM

    Um, Ocassional-Cortex voted – with every other democrat – to set aside the House’s 72-hour “let’s all read the bill” rule to fast track this monstrosity.

    As usual, she is a simp liar.

Pin It on Pinterest