Democrats Set Record Wasting Stimulus Funds

Washington DC, Dec 12, 2010. The USA had its 26th straight monthly budget deficit in November while  our legislators were feuding over a package that would extend big tax cuts to Americans trying to recover from recession.

Our government spent $150.4 billion  more than it collected in the month. Not too long ago, deficit numbers like "$150 billion" were annual figures, not monthly ones.

President Barack Hussein Obama, D-Kenya, says he expects the deficit to top $1 trillion in this fiscal year. However, most financial analysts predict that this year's deficit will top $1.5 trillion. This would be on top of the $1.416 trillion deficit President Obama racked up last year, in an effort to stimulate the economy.

However, despite the best intentions of the free spending Democrats, the stimulus plan hasn't worked. Virtually all economic indicators tells us that this effort has failed miserably. There were no "shovel ready jobs" created, as promised, and unemployment has actually gone higher due to President Obama's economic initiatives.

Part of the problem may be in how the money was spent. If we had had a $1.416 trillion tax cut, rather than a $1.416 aimless spending spree, the odds are we would be at full employment right now. Historically, tax cuts have always generated job growth and actually increased government revenue due to greater economic activity.

But the money was spent in ways designed to reward Obama's political allies, rather than to create jobs for the American people. Almost as if "spending as much as possible" was the goal, rather than any real effort to create jobs.

Here is just a partial list of some of the more outrageous spending:

* $4.19 billion for "neighborhood stabilization activities" (ACORN)
* $900 million to Hamas in Gaza, to help buy medical and military equipment.
* $54 million to Connecticut’s politically-connected Mohegan Indian tribe
* $22.3 million in stimulus money to weatherize homes for poor families in Houston.
* $9.1 million spend on road signs promoting the "Obama Stimulus Plan"
* $3.4 million  to help turtles cross a highway in Tallahassee, Florida.
* $1.9 million for California scientists to “capture, photograph, and analyze” ants.
* $1.8 million to Ames Iowa for a study of swine excrement.
* $1.2 million for research how elderly people react to playing video games.
* $1.15 million for the installation of a new guard rail around the non-existent lake.
* $1 million on a dinner cruise company in Chicago to combat terrorism.
* $823,200 to UCLA to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals.
* $712,883 to build a machine that tells jokes.
* $578,000 for Union NY, for a "homeless problem" they say they don't have.
* $498,000 for a Duke University professor of computer science to study Facebook.
* $389,000 to pay residents of Buffalo to record how much they drink and smoke.
* $443,000 to study beavers in Massachusetts.
* $325,394  to study the mating decisions of cactus bugs. 
* $298,543 to predict the weather on other planets.
* $294,958 on a program to reduce menopausal hot flashes with yoga classes.
* $219,000 for a study that examines the sex patterns of college women.
* $233,000 to the University of California at San Diego to study why Africans vote.
* $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California
* $180,935 to discover a better method for freezing rat sperm.
* $144,541 for Wake Forest University to give monkeys cocaine to see what happens.
* $112,437 for 3 high school and 3 college students to study "drinking alcohol."
* $100,000 for socially conscious puppet shows inspired by Che Guvera.
* $100,000 for a martini bar and a brazilian steakhouse.
* $15,551 for researchers to study how alcohol affects a mouse’s motor functions.

All of this money being spent is money we don't have. Money that we must either borrow from China to spend, or money we will create by simply "printing more money."

In the first case, we force this debt on our children and their children, and they must pay it back with interest. Which is a lot like financing a binge drinking weekend with a 40 year mortgage.

In the second case, when we print more money, we are effectively devaluing everything we own by making dollars cheaper. Your house, your car, your retirement savings, your investment portfolio, etc, will all become worth much less.

And then anything imported, like oil, gold or consumer goods made abroad will cost more dollars.

Inflation is the cruelest tax of all, since it hits hardest at people on low or fixed incomes.