However, they do care deeply about one thing: bringing into existence and funding key programs on the left-wing ideological agenda. The "stimulus" legislation and the "pork" with which it is laden are parts of a ruse designed to deceive and mislead the voting public. Call it the "Trojan Pig".
The Trojan Pig is designed to hide programs that would be rejected, or at least seriously questioned, in the light of day. These programs are wrapped in the mantle of "economic stimulus" (for business-minded citizens who believe, wrongly, that government can stimulate an economy) and seasoned heavily with pork-barrel spending (for those less-ambitious citizens who have been waiting since November 4, 2008, for their Obama handout).
House and Senate Republicans (and some moderate Democrats) have challenged all or parts of this legislation. Meanwhile, President Obama has attempted to appear above the fray, but has in actuality been playing a key role, that of "Propagandist-in-Chief": "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe." As Charles Krauthammer noted yesterday, "[S]o much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared 'we have chosen hope over fear.' Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill."
Americans should know that Obama plans to use this "crisis" as an ideological opportunity because his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, openly declared this intention:
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
As quoted by Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stated that the "stimulus" is about "taking America in a new direction".
So what does the Trojan Pig contain? Programs and policies designed to move the United States Government further towards the liberal Democrat majority's goal of a socialist "Nanny State". According to National Review Online, these include:
- Establishment of a universal, government-administered health care system (AKA "Medicare For All"): $89 billion for Medicaid, added to the SCHIP expansion that passed as separate legislation. Research by the Republican Study Committee revealed that the package also includes a provision of "1.1 billion dollars for Comparative Effectiveness Research". This measure "provides the cornerstone for a national government-run health care system" by establishing a "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER)". The Council "will establish a permanent government rationing organization [charged with] prescribing care in place of doctors and patients." In other words, the Trojan Pig would both found and fund a permanent bureaucracy in which "health care decisioins will be made by the government, not doctors and patients."
- Redistribution of wealth ("Spreading the Wealth", per President Obama): $30 billion for COBRA insurance extension, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, $2 billion for federal child-care block grants, $380 million for WIC (in the Senate version).
- Funding for collectivist political infrastructure (i.e., "community organizing", or "spreading the ideology"): $5.2 billion for community-development block grants and "neighborhood stabilization activities" (for which ACORN is eligible to apply).
- Increased Federal interference in state government: $79 billion for a "State Fiscal Stabilization Fund".
- Increased Federal control of education: $15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships, $4 billion for job-training programs (including $1.2 billion for "youths" up to the age of 24).
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