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THE STIMULUS IS A STEP TOWARDS A SOVIET AMERICA |
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Written by Senator Tom Coburn
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Tuesday, 10 February 2009 |
[Senator Coburn
recently gave this speech on the floor of the Senate]
We are going in exactly the wrong direction. We ought to be
standing on the principles that made this country great.
There ought to be a review of every program in the Federal
Government that is not effective, that is not efficient, that is wasteful or
fraudulent, and we ought to get rid of it right now. We ought to say, Gone, to
be able to pay for a real stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some impact.
I would be remiss if I didn't remind everybody that next
week we are going to hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500 billion. Outside of this
["stimulus" bill], they are going to want another $500 billion to handle the
banking system.
I want to make sure the American people know what is in this
Stimulus bill. I think once they know what is in this bill, they are going to
reject it out of hand. Let me read for my colleagues some of the things that
are in this bill.
The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2
billion in this bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be
great, maybe, if we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the world
sitting at MIT say we don't have the technology yet to do that.
Why would we build a $2 billion powerplant we don't have the
technology for that we know will come back and ask for another $2 billion and
another $2 billion and another $2 billion when we could build a demonstration
project that might cost $150 million or $200 million? There is nothing wrong
with having coal-fired plants that don't produce pollution; I am not against
that. Even the Washington Post said the technology isn't there. It is a
boondoggle. Why would we do that?
We eliminated tonight a $246 million payback for the large
movie studios in Hollywood.
We are going to spend $88 million to study whether we ought to buy a new ice
breaker for the Coast Guard. You know what. The Coast Guard needs a new ice
breaker. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They have two ice breakers now
that they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent to what they
needed to and not spend the $1 billion they are going to come back and ask for,
for another ice breaker, so why would we spend $88 million doing that?
We are going to spend $448 million to build the Department
of Homeland Security a new building. We have $1.3 trillion worth of empty
buildings right now, and because it has been blocked in Congress we can't sell
them, we can't raze them, we can't do anything, but we are going to spend money
on a new building here in Washington.
We are going to spend another $248 million for new furniture
for that building; a quarter of a billion dollars for new furniture. What about
the furniture the Department of Homeland Security has now? These are tough
times. Should we be buying new furniture? How about using what we have? That is
what a family would do. They would use what they have. They wouldn't go out and
spend $248 million on furniture.
How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do
you know what I would say? Right now times are tough; I would rather Americans
have new cars than Federal employees have new cars. What is wrong with the cars
we have? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used vehicle market
right now is one of the worst things we could do. Instead, we are going to
spend $600 million buying new cars for Federal employees.
There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs. I have a lot
of experience on that. I have delivered 4,000 babies. We don't need to spend
$400 million on STDs. What we need to do is properly educate about the
infection rates and the effectiveness of methods of prevention. That doesn't
take a penny more. You can write that on one piece of paper and teach every kid
in this country, but we don't need to spend $400 million on it. It is not a
priority.
How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell me how
that helps get us out of a recession. Tell me how that is a priority. Would the
average American think that is a priority that we ought to be mortgaging our
kids' future to spend another $150 million at the Smithsonian?
How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody
knows, the census is so poorly managed that the census in 2010 is going to cost
twice what it cost 10 years ago, and we wasted $800 million on a contract
because it was no-bid that didn't perform. Nobody got fired, no competitive
bidding, and we blew $800 million.
We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities, which
probably is a great idea, but we just passed a bill, the SCHIP bill, that we
need to get 21 million more Americans smoking to be able to pay for that bill.
That doesn't make sense.
How about $200 million for public computer centers at
community colleges? I mean, did we talk with Dell and Hewlett-Packard and say,
How do we make you all do better? Is there not a market force that could make
that better? Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid?
No, because there is nothing that requires competitive
bidding in anything in this bill. There is nothing that requires it. It is one
of the things President Obama said he was going to mandate at the Federal
Government, but there is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.
We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. Well,
that will put 10 or 15 people to work. Is that a priority for us right now?
There is $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into green
buildings. That is a priority, versus somebody getting a job outside of Washington,
a job that actually produces something, that actually increases wealth?
How about $500 million for State and local fire stations?
Where do you find in the Constitution us paying for local fire stations within
our realm of prerogatives? None of it is competitively bid.
Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does that
employ? What does that mean?
How about $88 million for renovating the public health
service building? You know, if we could sell half of the $1.3 trillion worth of
properties we have, we could take care of every Federal building requirement
and backlog we have.
Then there's $412 million for CDC [Centers for disease
Control] buildings and property. We spent billions on a new center and
headquarters for CDC. Is that a priority? If we are going to spend $412 million
on building buildings, let's build one that will produce something, one that
will give us something.
How about $850 million for that most ``efficient'' Amtrak
that hasn't made any money since 1976 and continues to have $2 billion or $3
billion a year in subsidies?
Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct a new
``security training'' facility for State Department security officers. We already have four other facilities already
available to train them. But they want theirs. By the way, it is going to be in
West Virginia. I wonder how that
got there.
So we are going to build a new training facility that
duplicates four others that we already have that could easily do what we need
to do. But because we have a stimulus package, we are going to add in oink
pork.
How about $200 million in funding for a lease - not buying,
but a lease - of alternative energy vehicles on military installations?
We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total all
of the health programs in this, and we are going to transfer $150 billion out
of the private sector and we are going to move it to the Federal Government.
You talk about backdooring national health care.
Henry Waxman has to be smiling big today. He wants a
single-payer Government-run health care system. We are going to move another
$150 billion to the Federal Government from the private sector.
We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small
Business Administration. You know what that does? That pushes productive
capital to unproductive projects. It is exactly the wrong thing to do.
We are going to spend $524 million for information
technology upgrades that the Appropriations Committee claims will create 388
jobs. If you do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job. Don't you love
the efficiency of Washington
thinking?
We are going to create $79 billion in additional money for
the States, a ``slush fund,'' to bail out States and provide millions of
dollars for education costs. How many of you think that will ever go away?
Once the State education programs get $79 billion over 2
years, do you think that will ever go away? The cry and hue of taking "our
money" away, even though it was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it will
never go away. So we will continue putting that forward until our kids have
grandkids of their own.
There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy programs
that are primarily focused on renewable energy. I am fine with spending that.
But we ought to get something for it. There ought to be metrics. There are no
metrics. It is pie in the sky, saying we will throw some money at it.
Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment in our
country. We will either start living within the confines of realism and
responsibility or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of the
greatest nation that ever lived.
This bill is the start of that downfall. To abandon a
market-oriented society and transfer it to a Soviet-style, government-centered,
bureaucratic-run and mandated program, that is the thing that will put the
stake in the heart of freedom in this country.
I hope the American people know what is in this bill. I am
doing everything I can to make sure they know. But more important, I hope
somebody is listening who will treat the ``pneumonia'' we are faced with today,
which is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn't matter how much money we
spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure unless we fix that problem first.
Failing that, we will go down in history as the Congress
that undermined the future and vitality of this country. Let it not be so.
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