GOP to America: “No We Can’t!”

Really? Republicans want tax cuts. Really? REALLY?

We’ve been cutting taxes for people who “create jobs” for a decade now and our economy is in ruins. And now that they are out of power, what is their new idea for America? The Republicans want more tax cuts. Really? Really.

They say the things listed below aren’t stimuli. The GOP says they won’t create jobs.

The thing is, government exists for a reason. It is the embodiment of the brain and brawn of our nation. We have government in order to do things collectively that would be inefficient to do individually: national security, sewage and other utilities, infrastructure investment, health care. We also have it for protection from the worst of humans and nature: food & water and materials inspection, business regulation, emergency management, federal police. Refusing to fund the basic necessities of America may make a GOP tax-cutter feel highly self-righteous, but it is unpatriotic. No amount of lapel-pin wearing will hide how the GOP wants America — in Rush Limbaugh’s immortal words — “to fail.”

via What GOP Leaders deem wasteful in Senate stimulus bill – CNN.com:

On Monday, House Republican leaders put out a list of what they call wasteful provisions in the Senate version of the nearly $900 billion stimulus bill that is being debated:

• $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.

Let’s see, we’ll spend $9 billion to fund the inefficient Missile Defense System (which I’m not against), but the GOP won’t invest in trying to come up with clean coal technology? Imagine if we did finally discover the ability to have clean-coal energy. America is packed with coal. Imagine the American-made energy. Imagine the jobs and exports it would produce.

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

One of America’s greatest exports is Hollywood.  It makes us a ton of cash and creates thousands of jobs, including at Kodak, a struggling American company. We would do well do invest in this export. Besides, this is $246 over 11 years – a tiny investment.

• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.

Investing in the the improvement of America’s technology backbone will keep our country on the cutting edge, which is important in job creation in the digital age.  Helping  consumers use this new technology as soon as possible is vital for American technology companies to remain competitive in today’s information economy.

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).

Yes, GOP.  Shipbuilding isn’t job creation. Santa’s elves come down from the arctic and build our ships for free.

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

Construction must not be job creation, either.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.

Furniture elves?

Automobiles:

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations

Lord knows American car companies don’t need to sell cars and we don’t need to conserve gas or get off of foreign oil. It’s always 1956 in the GOP.

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD’s.

Didn’t we just have a ton of layoffs at Whitman-Walker while completely closing one location in Northern VA? This is obvious job creation in the health field and advertising. STDs don’t screen themselves.

I guess spending a few dollars on early-diagnosis cures per patient isn’t as economically stimulating as when the government and local hospitals will need to spend exponentially more for expensive medical care and hospital stays for indigent patients.

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.

No need to hire engineers. No need to be proud of America’s ability to offer clean water and land to her citizens, especially in the nation’s capital.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.

Improving our national treasures and is important for the pride in America, and we must fund our constitutional mandate. But these will create jobs in the DC area, and we all know the GOP hates Washington.

• $75 million for “smoking cessation activities.”

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.

I guess spending a few dollars on counseling jobs and medical help per patient isn’t as economically stimulating as when the government and local hospitals will need to spend exponentially more on fighting cancer and liver disease.

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.

American computerand software companies certainly don’t need to sell any more products or retain workers.

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

Isn’t this job creation?

• $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.

Engineers smengineers! No jobs for you!

• $500 million for state and local fire stations.

Wow. Just wow. The GOP calls the construction (jobs) of fire stations (jobs) wasteful. Wow.

• $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.

Again, aren’t these all direct job creation? GOP: “No We can’t! no we can’t!”

• $5.5 million for “energy efficiency initiatives” at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

The GOP would rather not hire anyone at a veterans cemetery and continue to be “energy inefficient.”

• $850 million for Amtrak.

Whether this is stimulus is arguable. How is the money spent?

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

Whether this is stimulus is arguable. How are we reducing the hazard? Are we hiring people for summer jobs to strip and fix lead-painted buildings?

• $75 million to construct a “security training” facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

Cut this? More of America on the cheap.

The GOP: “No Can Do!” Do they have a desire to invest in America, or do they just want their tax breaks?