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THE STIMULUS IS A STEP TOWARDS A SOVIET AMERICA
Written by Senator Tom Coburn - - - -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.
Note: Tom Coburn is an MD from Oklahoma . Each weekend he returns to
Oklahoma and delivers low income family babies - free.
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