News Items That Melt My Hard Drive

In case you hadn't seen this on CNN's website yesterday, below is a comprehensive list of all the things that were cut out of the Senate version of the stimulus bill (I'd highly recommend following the links this time since they explain what exactly got cut and who exactly will suffer):

Partially cut:

• $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings (original bill $7 billion)

• $75 million from Smithsonian (original bill $150 million)

• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)

• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)

• $100 million from law enforcement wireless (original bill $200 million)

• $300 million from federal fleet of hybrid vehicles (original bill $600 million)

• $100 million from FBI construction (original bill $400 million)

Fully eliminated

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $122 million for new Coast Guard polar icebreaker/cutters

• $100 million for Farm Service Agency modernization

• $50 million for CSERES research

• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation

• $30 million for SD salaries

• $100 for distance learning

• $98 million for school nutrition

• $50 million for aquaculture

• $2 billion for broadband (Can anyone say "infrastructure of the 21st century?)

• $100 million for NIST

• $50 million for detention trustee

• $25 million for Marshalls Construction

• $300 million for federal prisons

• $300 million for BYRNE Formula

• $140 million for BYRNE Competitive

• $10 million state and local law enforcement

• $50 million for NASA

• $50 million for aeronautics

• $50 million for exploration

• $50 million for Cross Agency Support

• $200 million for National Science Foundation

• $100 million for science

• $1 billion for Energy Loan Guarantees

• $4.5 billion for GSA

• $89 million GSA operations

• $50 million from DHS

• $200 million TSA

• $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use

• $25 million for Fish and Wildlife

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $20 million for working capital fund

• $165 million for Forest Service capital improvement

• $90 million for State and Private Wildlife Fire Management

• $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start

• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity

• $2 billion for HIT Grants

• $600 million for Title I (NCLB)

• $16 billion for school construction

• $3.5 billion for higher education construction

• $1.25 billion for project based rental

• $2.25 for Neighborhood Stabilization

• $1.2 billion for retrofitting Project 8 housing

• $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization (includes $7.5 billion of state incentive grants)

Trillions for the Iraq war, Wall Street and tax cuts for the already bloated? Priceless.

Fuck getting a handle on crime, fuck overhauling the criminal justice system, fuck the sick and poor, fuck our children, fuck the farmers, fuck the environment, fuck science, fuck national security, essentially fuck any and every program and foundation dedicated to anything remotely akin to a progressive or even a pragmatic cause. The minority, I repeat, the minority Republican party screamed their heads off demanding this "pork" got hacked out of the bill. The Democrats caved in to them because they cannot do shit unless they have a 60% majority in the Senate. Vote them out. Vote their fat bipartisan asses out of Congress at the earliest available opportunity before they kill you in one way or another.

Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman gives his thoughts on the "compromise" in "Conscience of a Liberal."