[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1798-1799]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE ABSURDITY OF STIMULUS PROJECTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. We keep hearing about how great the trillion-dollar 
stimulus bill was and how well it has worked. It has been 1 year or so, 
so lest we forget, let's see where some of that stimulus money got 
spent.
  In Buffalo, New York, the State university got about $400,000 to 
study the effects of drinking malt liquor while smoking pot. For 3 
weeks, 100 people are paid $45 a day of taxpayer money to drink malt 
liquor and smoke a little marijuana--this party stupor paid for by 
Americans throughout the country.
  Taxpayers are footing the bill for other parties, like the one in 
Boca Raton, Florida. But this one is not for people, this one is for 
lab mice. That is right, Atlantic University is getting about $15,000 
for two summer researchers to measure how alcohol affects a mouse's 
motor functions. I wonder where the PETA people are on this one. Now, 
do these drunk lab mice count as jobs saved or jobs created? We don't 
know.
  We are not through. In Nebraska, we are funding another wasteful 
bridge project. First we had the Cornhusker Kickback, and now Americans 
are sending $7 million to Thelford, Nebraska, to build a bridge. That 
doesn't sound so bad, but this $7 million bridge is so 168 people don't 
have to wait so long to cross a railroad track. Sounds like we are 
wasting money. By the way, that is $43,000 per person waiting for that 
train.
  And the U.S. Forest Service is getting $2.8 million in stimulus money 
to spend on wildfire management in Washington, D.C. But the problem is 
Washington, D.C. doesn't have a national forest. But that doesn't make 
any difference to the bureaucrats. In Washington, you don't need a 
forest to get wildfire management funds; you just need out-of-control 
spending.
  The Florida Department of Transportation, and this is my favorite one 
of all, is spending $3.4 million in stimulus funds to build a turtle 
tunnel in Tallahassee. A turtle tunnel in Tallahassee, Florida; $3.4 
million. That is about four times as much money as the average working 
American will earn in their entire life. But the stimulus slush fund is 
doling out $3.4 million for the turtle tunnel for turtles to cross the 
highway. Before we had a stimulus bill, Mr. Speaker, how did the turtle 
cross the road? For that money we could get the turtles limos to cross 
that street.
  The Picher Housing Authority in Oklahoma, here is another one, 
received $135,000 in stimulus money to remodel homes and businesses at 
the Tar Creek Superfund site. The most obvious problem with that 
scenario is the Tar Creek Superfund site is scheduled to be destroyed. 
It is going to be remodeled and then destroyed. Only the Federal 
Government would spend taxpayer money to fix up a home and then a few 
years later pay to tear it down.
  Mr. Speaker, this whole philosophy of the stimulus project and fiasco 
is a flawed premise. It is the idea that we can take taxpayer money and 
give it to the government, and then the government can decide how 
special folks, special projects will get that money and spend that 
money for government make-work programs. See, these aren't real jobs; 
these are jobs that the taxpayers have to pay for, jobs that aren't 
permanent, that will eventually go away.
  Real jobs are not created by Uncle Sam. Real jobs are created by the 
private sector. We call those people small business communities. And 
they can make real jobs where other taxpayers don't have to pay for 
those jobs. And that is when more businesses have more of their own 
money, rather than paying taxes to the Federal Government so the 
government can decide which special friends throughout the government 
to get this stimulus money.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people are fed up with this insanity. They 
are telling Washington stop the spending. They are saying no, stop the 
spending. Stop the wasteful projects. Stop the fraud, stop the abuse. 
Stop borrowing money. We don't have the money for all these projects, 
so we borrow it. And of course we borrow it from our friends, the 
Chinese. Sixty percent of our debt is owned by the Chinese. And of 
course someday there is going to be a day of reckoning. We are going to 
have to pay back that money. And that will be paid back in the form of 
taxes or it will be paid back by people yet to be born.
  The White House seems to want to spend the people into the poor 
house, mortgage off their homes, the mineral rights, and then pay for 
this massive spending bill.
  And that's just the way it is.

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