It’s kind of like a feeding frenzy. It’s a little bit unsettling to me.”
Mayors across the country are getting in on stimulus-paloooza without any thought about future consequences. Beware the stampede:
Everyone wants a slice of stimulus pie.
While Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s office hasn’t made an official call for projects, special interest groups throughout the state and nation are urging localities to compile wish lists for work that is “shovel-ready” or could be ready for construction in a short time. Those include construction trade groups, associations repre-senting engineering issues and groups lobbying for local governments.
“It’s kind of like a feeding frenzy. It’s a little bit unsettling to me,” Lynchburg City Manager Kimball Payne said. “You read all these articles about bridges to nowhere and then everyone wants to build one.”
The US Conference of Mayors meets in DC this weekend. Taxpayers’ groups are mobilizing a protest:
This weekend, the US Conference of Mayors is holding their Winter Meeting in DC at the Capitol Hilton. There are strong rumblings that they will release another version of their “ready to go” infrastructure projects that will compromise a large, pork-laden portion of Obama’s stimulus package. It is important that we have a large, public presence in opposition to this wasteful, budget-busting spending initiative.
NTU and other activists will be assembling outside the Capitol Hilton on Saturday, 1/13, at noon in a show of pro-taxpayer solidarity against the mayors, who are the latest to line up at the trough for handouts from the federal government. Please join us for this protest on Saturday. As you know, in this climate, we’ll need all the help we can get.
Date: Saturday, January 17, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Location: Capitol Hilton (sidewalk outside the front entrance)
Street: 1001 16th Street NW
City/Town: Washington, DC
William Jacobson asks a very good question:
If Obama builds it, who will pay to maintain it?
Barack Obama is about to propose a massive, trillion dollar stimulus package, the centerpiece of which is infrastructure projects. Large-scale infrastructure projects have a long history of cost-overruns, mob-influence through corrupt unions, and are not effective at long-term job creation.
But that is not the worst of it. Once built, who will maintain this infrastructure? And if the infrastructure is not self-sustaining, will the projects be a massive drain on state and local budgets for decades?
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Trackbacks
- Here come the mayors, “Give us money too!” « America, You Asked For It!
- BAM Stimulus: GOP Alternatives « JoHNBRoDiGaNDoTCoM
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories: fiscal stimulus
Mudville Gazette
» The five-year plan
Stop The ACLU
» SEALs Charged With Assault for Arresting Top TerroristLegal Insurrection
» Is "Finish the Job" the New "Peace With Honor"?JustOneMinute
» Getting Ready For The TurkeyRiehl World View
» Uncle Jimbo Re-deploys In War With AllahSister Toldjah
» WaPo and NYT to Obama: We love ya, you stylish deep thinkerPundit & Pundette
» Hiding the decline: Deniers made them do itWeekly Standard
» GOP Opens up 7-Point Lead on Congressional Ballot, Obama Numbers Dive on Health Care, Gitmo, and KSM
The elephant has been dead for quite awhile. Michelle has been showing it here as dead for months.
It’s time for a new symbol for the Grand Ol’Party. Let’s hear some ideas.
Leech?
Vulture/Buzzard?
Tick?
A virus? Perphaps a Bacterium?
There has to be something to show the blood sucking, vitality draining nature of the “New GOP…”
I posted a couple weeks ago about UVA working up its stimulus proposal. As for Kaine, I think he’s got his eyes on distant prizes, but he is in no way above this, I assure you.
questioning the ONE is RACIST!!
just because its never worked in the history of the world, doesn’t mean it won’t work this time!! after all, THIS time, the new bi-racial messiah is leading us…things are different now…
ps: I have this bridge for sale….cheap!!
The new GOP symbol, obviously, should be a donkey.
Money is like crack cocaine to politicians, they just can’t stop spending until there is nothing left.
lemming?
Alfred E. Newman?
doornail?
Nah… just the donkey’s ass will be appropriate.
I really wish some high profile conservative(s) would begin the movement of divorcing from the Rhino/Republican party and begin a new party of patriotism, conservatism and traditionalism. People like Rush, Hannity, Levin, Ingraham and Malkin join forces and get this thing going. And the mascot could be simply a Patriot or Minuteman.
Or as one California politician put it,
“Money is the mothers milk of politics”
An
overweightgrossly obesereally really fat slob of a donkey, with dried food on his overstretched tee shirt with a bailout check in his back pocket.Erin F –
The new symbol would be a “Patriot” or a “Minuteman?”
This is modern America, Erin.
LAWSUITS! Minute”man?” Are you sexist? It’s now “Minnuteperson.” Will the Minuteperson adorn his uniform with a pink ribbon? No? Why not, are you homophobic?
Oh, and what race is the Patriot? White? Come on, get real.
How large is the new Minuteperson’s carbon footprint? Does he/she ride a horse? A car? Is the car a hybrid?
Do you see where we are? A nation cannot exist with liberalism… ah, do you see now what they’ve been planning all along?
Well, they’ve won.
The new GOP symbol should definitely be The Tick — dumb as a bucketful of earwax, constantly needs his friends to save his ass, and the few things he does do right are ALWAYS by accident.
Also, he is fictional, just like conservatism in the GOP.
As Kevin Fassett points out, once this Trillion dollars in pork is approved, the baseline of the Federal budget moves up by a Trillion (or 2 Trillion) dollars. Since government spending never goes down, the Democrats have 2 Trillion more to play with every year from now on.
And no conceivable way of paying for it except for default or/and hyperinflation.
Well, it looks to me like the old joke about “poli” and “tics” is very appropo, here.
I think a bunch of ticks milling about in a circle is just about right for the new symbol.
How ’bout a Lemming? The GOP seems to be following the Dems right off the cliff.
Well, defeatists like you need not apply. And traditionalist women such as myself will be willing to look past the sex of the mascot for safety, security, and values.
Gawd!
Nope, the appropriate symbol came up during the last election.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e9/jddrive/rino-touch-720176.jpg
I saw a story on tv about “fainting goats” that when they were confronted, they became paralized with fear and fell over. They reminded me of the GOP leadership.
Let’s hope the new symbol will be the Phoenix, rising from the ashes.
New name for GOP??? I go back to the old standby, REPUBLICRATS or DEMICANS… No difference anymore to me… We did it to ourselves, by not changing the direction the GOP was headed when we first saw it… RUNAWAY SPENDING, BIG GOVERNMENT, FAILURE TO SECURE OUR BORDERS… All done in the last eight years… This madness will only cease to be when the POLS realize IT IS NOT YOUR MONEY… I fear this is a long way off… Maybe our previous POSTS were correct… “Only when they run out of MONEY”…
mchristian…
Dude, that’s FUNNY!!
:LOL:
Anopheles mosquito is my obvious choice. Sucks the blood out of you, leaves you with a critter that gives you cold sweats & chills while you are burning up with fever and – ultimately – an agonizing death.
Sort of OT, and I don’t think they mean the typical Malkin reader…
Top story on CNN.com
‘Boiling anger’ over Bush legacy
I’m not thrilled with the budgets, Medicare drug entitlement, border security or the semi-socialist bailout, but “boiling rage” seems a little strong. Disappointment, maybe.
A “little” unsettling is a understatement.
Actually, I like the donkey’s a** that was mentioned above as the new R symbol.
It’s inextricably attached to the donkey and regrettably, the donkey is the one leading.
Wrong way, but leading
Why cannot there be more like this guy?
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/37167414.html
His stance has been criticized by many as grandstanding for political points, as he is expected to be running for governor, but it is quite typical of the way he has run our county; with fiscal responsibility in the face of a liberal loaded board and a city mayor who seems to vanish when things get dicey.
And once they run out, they rob others to support their habit.
Excellent comparison.
This is the second time I’ve read the term “shovel-ready” today, and I don’t recall ever hearing the term before. Pretty accurate definition of what’s been going on lately.
I see this sort of thing in Malaysia all the time… construction for the sake of it under the assumption it will create jobs and improve lives. Its even WORSE here though because there are plenty of empty buildings that were either never finished. Big_view_blocking_eye_sores.
It doesn’t work!
…either never finished OR USED
I suggest the DODO for the current GOP mascot. It was pretty dumb, it was pretty ugly, it smelled bad, it couldn’t fly right, and it had a long neck to help it reach across the aisle to the Donkeys.
***
Oh–did I mention–it is extinct–like the traditional (read Reagan or non-RINO) “Republican” party of today. We may be close to the point of being able to replace the dead Republican party with a new Conservative party.
***
Go SarahCuda–2012!
***
John Bibb
Best idea I have heard in a long time!!
Call it the American Patriot party, and its symbol is the Minuteman.
Didn’t Hannity quit the GOP last year? I seem to recall him saying that.
Has anyone here considered The Modern Whig Party?
PS: They already have a mascot.
I guess that was a thread killer…