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'Stimulus?' Pass The Pork Platter

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JOHN HERBERT

From Where I Sit

Published: February 8, 2009

What's all the noise about an "emergency" stimulus package? Silly me — I thought that meant we'd be jump-starting our ailing economy around last Christmas

It's February now, and the latest proposal is still loaded, and then unloaded, with so much juicy pork that it's beginning to stink. Like the uninvited relative who stays with you for more than three nights.

Most pork projects have at least some merit to someone but can hardly qualify as emergencies. They should be dealt with at a later time. How would military pensions for surviving Philippine war veterans create more jobs here at home? Or $50 million to the National Endowment of the Arts? That's the place that recruits unemployed "artists" to create excrement-based religious sketches.

Or how about bailing out Florida citrus growers? For "crops" planted in 2009. The hitch is that it takes several years before a new fruit tree can be ready for a money-making harvest. The nation's solar energy association and the Sierra Club would like more investments in just about anything green or renewable.

And shame on Florida's Republican Sen. Mel Martinez, who suggests another $2 billion a year for NASA's next generation of manned space flight. Who needs it except for maybe a few thousand nerdy aerospace techies. Actually, he'd rather see a doubling of NASA's annual budget to around $40 billion. Hey, Senator, ever consider giving private enterprise an opportunity?

Is pouring cash into NASA really a stimulus? "It'll inspire a whole generation," he recently assured us. Possibly, but will it save any Florida homes from foreclosure? Not with Hernando County's unemployment rate soaring higher than 10 percent. No wonder Sen. Martinez isn't running for re-election next year. We shouldn't be making any moves, at this recessionary point, that don't spell immediate job growth. "Shovel ready," some financial experts call it.

Florida's other senator, Democrat Bill Nelson, is just as much the mad spendthrift. One of his big ideas is $350 million for new computers for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with another $100 million for Energy Department hardware. And we send guys like this off the Washington to speak for us? Pass the pork platter, please.

At least Hernando County Commission Chairman Dave Russell got it right at last week's meeting. Discussing Brooksville's "top 10" wish list, Russell, wizened by years in the Tallahassee Legislature, admitted, "We'll be lucky to get one project funded."

The wish list included several water treatment plant updates, airport industrial park improvements and South Brooksville draining repairs, which will probably be done, anyway.

Commissioner Jim Adkins saw one of his pet projects fall by the wayside: paving nine miles of dusty limerock roads. It would cost about $1.5 million, Brooksville estimates. Compare that with the list's new judicial center for $50 million or $17 million to rebuild Deltona Boulevard.

The Wall Street Journal picked out some other goodies a few days ago: $600 million (on top of $3 billion already-approved dollars) for the feds to buy more new cars.

Well, I guess someone has to fork over extra cash; auto sales plunged 37 percent last month. It was the worst January for car sales in 30 years, the newspaper claimed. It would come as no surprise if the Senate version approves tax breaks for car buyers as part of the stimulus.

Let's improve our highway infrastructure — for the most part the projects are" shovel ready" —but not what's left of the federal railroad system. Yet, Congress sought a billion dollars for failing Amtrak. The company hasn't reported a profit in its 40-year existence.

Another $8 billion from the federal government could be blown on various global warming projects that aren't all that urgent. Oh, and $54 billion just to account for all the handouts. Another expensive federal bureaucracy, I presume?

Where do we go from here? Hopefully, toward immediate and long-lasting tax cuts. They would prompt fast job growth and would be easy to implement. Anything speedy, not requiring years of planning and permitting first.

That would speak in favor of many "shovel ready" public works projects and for scuttling Texan plans for a 36-holeFrisbee golf course or a new golf clubhouse in Nebraska.

A regular columnist for Hernando Today, John Herbert lives in Spring Hill.

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