Blue Collar Muse

Christian Grantham over at Channel 2’s Nashville is Talking posted Tennessee’s portion of the Stimulus Package swag.  Keep in mind this is supposed to be spending that stimulates the Economy.  This is a joke - and a bad one.  The total amount Tennessee is to receive is $3,779,708,000 - almost $4 billion dollars to pump into the economy of the state of Tennessee.  Let’s see where the pork is earmarked to go …

The first $943,288,000 under the heading Fiscal Stabilization, whatever that means, is spent as follows:  $771,610,000 on Education and $171,678,000 on General Purpose.  How spending three quarters of a billion dollars on Education is going to stimulate the Economy is beyond me.  I know, I know … an educated populace is a prosperous one.  I even agree.  But the sky is falling, remember?  We have to pass the Stimulus now or Economic ruin is upon us.  How even $771 trillion spent on education over the next 5 years is going to do anything but prosper the Teacher’s Union is beyond me.  This is not stimulating the Economy anytime soon.  General Purpose sounds like the money is going into the state’s General Budget.  This is nothing more than Welfare for Tennessee instead of Tennesseans.  The state gets another $172 million dollars to spend on whatever it wants.  I wish we had checkbook transparency in Tennessee so we could know that money was spent in the Private Sector and thus be sure it was stimulating the Economy.  Government spending on Government is only Economically depressing as once the “Stimulus” funds are gone taxpayers still pick up the tab for the bureaucracy it created.  Two line items down, we’ve spent a billion dollars - so far no stimulus.

The next several line items are spending for various projects and we get a bit more specific.

Medicaid spending alone gets $1,100,000,000.  No stimulus here.  In 3 line items we’ve now spent over half of our share of the “Stimulus” money and have yet to stimulate anything.

Foster Care/Adoption Assistance gets $10,200,000.  Stimulating? No.

Highways and Bridges get $572,701,000.  This might be stimulating if it is spent in the Private Sector.  If we hire more state employees to do this work it is not.  Score it a maybe.  And I won’t even ask why we’re spending federal pork dollars on this.  Aren’t we supposed to have funds in our budget for this every year?  Take a look and see how that money has been spent over the last 10 years and tell me we should have to receive federal dollars to repair our roads and bridges.

Mass Transit Capital Grants gets $71,988,000 so we can have more Music City Stars losing money and whizzing past paid fares on future 4th of Julys.  These are long term money pits, not economic recovery and stimulus.

Fixed Guideway Modernization sounds sort of stimulating but it’s only $28,000 so how much good would it do either way?

Clean Water and Drinking Water are next up at $20,394,000 and $57,814,000 respectively.  Perhaps these would pay for some upgrades, repairs and such and would be stimulating if the money is spent in the Private Sector.  But without more details, I have to call it another maybe.  And again, why aren’t these costs built in to the product they charge for or the current tax base?  This is not an item beyond the scope of local Government to address if they are fiscally responsible.  Ooops, I guess that explains it, doesn’t it?

Underground Storage Tank and Hazardous Waste are both line items without a dollar figure.  I don’t know if that means they’re burying the money and it’s hazardous to my health to know how much they’re burying or something else.  But no dollars can’t be stimulating.  Moving on …

Weatherization and State Energy Program check in at $97,467,000 and $59,065,000.  A State Energy Program is more “money pit” spending.  Who knows what Weatherization is?  But it’s enough for each county in the state to get $1 million or so each so I’m sure they’ll find something to spend it on.  Private Sector or Public is the question once again.  Which makes the answer, “maybe”, once again.

Immunizations at $7,199,000; Elderly Nutrition at $2,614,000; Child Care at $41,932,000; Community Services Block Grant at $19,699,000; Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program at $2,069,000; FEMA - Emergency Food and Shelter at $2,064,000 and; Vocational Rehabilitation at $11,500,000 come up as no, no, no, no, no, no and another maybe.  If the Vocational Rehab is paid to Private Sector companies, yes - if not, no.  Best we can do is another maybe.  Regarding the other spending, please spare me the “I don’t care about babies and old people!”  It’s insulting and it’s not true.  We’re discussing an Economic Stimulus plan, not another Social Welfare plan.  That spending is, in fact, Social Welfare.  If the President wants to rename his bill the Welfare Stimulus Package, I’ll reconsider and give them all a “Yes!”.  But if he’s going to keep calling this Economic Stimulus then he’s either been deceived by the Conference Committee as to what they did to his great idea or he’s not the really smart guy you all thought he was.

In a line item square dance we swing back around to our original partner, Education, for another step or two.  K-12 Education - Elementary and Secondary Education Act Grants to LEAs gets $174,210,000 and School Improvement - Innovation and Improvement gets $50,386,000 for another $224,596,000 to go with Education’s original $771,610,000.  The big bucks get a big “No!” for being stimulating while the $50 million scores an additional maybe.

Education keeps on being stimulated with another $236,163,000 for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  Under this expense Special Education gets $229 million and Early Intervention a mere $7 million.  Why does this sound like more payoffs to the Teacher’s Union and not an Economic Stimulus.  Again, leaving for the moment the ongoing expense of such programs after the Stimulus money is gone when taxpayers right here in Tennessee will have to pick up the tab for it.  I’m giving this an “F” in Stimulus accomplishment while noting that the program does manage to play well with other expensive Government boondoggle programs.

Education mercifully peters out at long last with a final gasp of $10,994,000 for Education Technology, $669,000 for Education for the Homeless and $1,985,000 for School Lunch Equipment.  I’m excited to be able to finally score a couple of “Yes” votes.  Ed Tech and the Lunch Equipment will almost certainly have to be purchased from a Private Sector company thereby providing non-Government jobs and capital to the only people able to actually impact the Economy.  Education for the Homeless?  Not so much…

Another long list of non-stimulating expenditures follows.  HOME Investment Partnership Program gets $30,394,000.  $49,518,000 goes to Byrne Justice Assistance Grant.  Crimefighting gets stimulated with $9,770,000 for Crime Victims Assistance, $646,000 for Internet Crimes Against Children and $4,496,000 for Violence Against Women.  $9,600,000 for State Administration Grants for Unemployment Insurance would appear to be federal money to pay for overseeing a federal program.  It might help end a bit of unfunded mandates but it’s not stimulating.  $10,945,000 for Adult Workforce Investment Act and an additional $25,353,000 for the Youth version of the same sound unlikely to do anything but produce bureaucracy.  Dislocated Workers get stimulated to the tune of $19,777,000.  $2,472,000 goes to Community Service for Older Americans and Employment Service gets $7,426,000 which, if it is to help people find work may be stimulating but I wonder how the state’s Private Sector businesses doing the same thing will feel about their tax dollars going to create Governmental competition for them?  None of this is economically stimulating.

Our $3.8 billion in Economic Stimulus funds is finished up by our final entries.  Head Start, that powerful and ancient economic engine, gets $13,775,000.  $80,710,000 goes to the Public Housing Capital Fund.  That sounds too much like another Government program as opposed to actual construction work so we’ll vote “No”.  CDBG and Neighborhood Revitalization gets a “?” on the amount to be spent on it but it doesn’t sound promising.  And the final line item is … drum roll, please … $20,397,000 for Homelessness Prevention.

Our totals are quite interesting.  Of our total $3,779,708,000 - $1,246,017 goes to various Education programs, $1,100,000,000 goes to Medicaid leaving just $1,433,691,000 to spend on everything else.  Almost two thirds of the money is excluded from stimulating the Economy in just two general items.  Of the monies left, $771,282,000 also fails to stimulate the Economy, $662,409,000 falls under the “Maybe” category and only $12,979,000 has the appearance of true Stimulus spending.

This is why only 3 Republican votes could be squeezed out of Congress.  This is why hundreds of Economists, including Nobel Laureates, disagree with the President’s contention that Government must do something to fix the problem.  This is why the more people found out about the idea, the less they liked it.  This is the reason the President broke campaign promises to permit legislation to be viewed and debated before voting on it.  This is the reason millions of Americans believe the bill to be nothing but Earmarks and Pork and little or no real Economic Stimulus.

It’s also the reason Governor Phil Bredesen and the Tennessee Legislature should simply refuse to accept the money and send it back.  While failing in its stated intention to stimulate the Economy, it succeeds quite nicely at funding taxpayer unfriendly special interest groups and non-profits.  It succeeds handsomely at invigorating the growth of Government and bureaucracy.  In short, it is actually damaging to the Economy because it creates billions of dollars in federal programs which are left to taxpayers to pay for after the Stimulus funds run out.  Not to mention they must pay back the original money, with interest.  This is not stimulating to Tennessee or Tennesseans.  Our elected officials should understand this and refuse to accept such tremendous financial burdens in the name of fiscal responsibility.

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