That’s what Ben Nelson and Susan Collins apparently think. Greg Sargent has obtained a memo of the latest round of changes to the stimulus package being proposed by these two:
Total Reductions: $80 billion
Eliminations:
Head Start, Education for the Disadvantaged, School improvement, Child Nutrition, Firefighters, Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, Prisons, COPS Hiring, Violence Against Women, NASA, NSF, Western Area Power Administration, CDC, Food Stamps
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Reductions:
Public Transit $3.4 billion, School Construction $60 billion
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Increases:
Defense operations and procurement, STAG Grants, Brownfields, Additional transportation funding
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So building schools isn’t stimulating, but spending more on defense is? Oh and food stamps? Isn’t the very simple idea of people being able to purchase food, rather through their salary or a government program, increasing demand, which is stimulus in the very core sense? How about being able to hire firefighters, police, and keeping prison open? THOSE ARE JOBS!!!!!! Nelson and Collins aren’t worried about stimulating the economy – they are worried about appearing bi-partisan. They should both be told to sit down as they have had their fun and the grown-ups have serious work to do now.