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Sector-by-sector breakdown of Democrats’ stimulus plan

Engineering News/Record has perhaps more than you’ll ever need to know about the stimulus plan (considering it’s final form will look like a pancake run through a meat grinder after Congress gets done with it). Lots of digging and scraping happening there, but also:

Native American housing block grants, repairs, rehabilitation, $500 million

Bureau of Indian Affairs, infrastructure (schools, dams, roads, detention and law enforcement facilities) $500 million

Indian Health Service, facilities $550 million

Hmm, do I detect a whiff of Indian casino contributions?

And then there’s

Home weatherization assistance $6.2 billion

National Park Service infrastructure maintenance $1.7 billion

NIH campus modernization, $500 million

I wish my 20 years of observing the wheels of government in motion gave me more confidence that these billions will be spent wisely.

4 comments | Permalink | Tags: ,
Tom Mangan posted at 11:03 pm January 20th, 2009 |

4 Responses to 'Sector-by-sector breakdown of Democrats’ stimulus plan'

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  1. Mahkno says:

    “Home weatherization assistance”

    I don’t know how many years ago it was… 70s perhaps? Germany mandated that every window in the country be replaced with energy efficient windows. You know, the ones double or triple paned with like argon in the middle. It didn’t matter how old or historic a place was. It wasn’t optional. Of course for more historic properties, efforts were made to make windows that looked like what originally was there. The government helped subsidize that change over with reimbursements to residents.

    Today, Germans spend considerably less to heat their homes than we do. The savings over the decades since has more than paid for what was spent back then.

    This would seem like a worthwhile sort of stimulus project that would reap benefits in the long.

    Permalink | Posted January 21st, 2009, at 5:54 am
  2. tom says:

    That is interesting … I thought $6 billion sounded like a lot of weatherstripping but window replacement would be pricier, and sensible.

    Permalink | Posted January 21st, 2009, at 6:28 am
  3. Sandy says:

    Government gives the money to private enterprise and has since Reagan. That has completely solved the problem of government waste.

    Oh wait…

    Permalink | Posted January 24th, 2009, at 9:28 am
  4. Greg says:

    Re: Cat 4Q/08 earnings report.
    I don’t know anyone that can tell me how many order cancellations CAT is getting. I do have a contact at the Lafayette (Ind.) Large Engine Center who says they just “lost” a multi-million dollar engine order. That could be they were out bid or the order was cancelled. Lafayette is getting about 10 orders per day, which is down 50-75%. They had a “first round” of layoffs of hourly workers yesterday.

    Permalink | Posted January 24th, 2009, at 12:20 pm

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