Fear Mongering

-- $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

-- $380 million for the Women, Infants & Children welfare program

-- $300 million in grants to combat viol ence against women

-- $1.2 billion to provide "youth" with summer jobs

-- $2.4 billion for "neighborhood stabilization" activities

-- $650 million for digital TV coupons

-- $150 million for the Smithsonian

-- $34 million to renovate the Dept. of Commerce headquarters

-- $500 million for improvements to the National Institute of Health facility

-- $44 million for repairs to the Dept. of Agriculture's headquarters

-- $350 million for agriculture department computers

-- $88 million to move (that's right, move) the Public Health Service into a new building.

-- $1 billion for the Census Bureau

-- $89 billion for Medicaid

-- $30 billion for COBRA extensions

-- $36 billion for expanded unemployment

-- $20 billion for food stamps

-- $850 million for Amtrak

-- $87 million for a "polar ice breaking ship" (What about the ice caps melting because of global warming?)

-- $1.7 million for the National Park Service

-- $55 million for the Historic Preservation Fund

-- $7.6 million for the Rural Advancement Program

-- $150 million for "agricultural commodity purchases"

-- $150 million for producers of livestock, farm-raised fish and honey bees

-- $160 million for paid volunteers (what is a "paid volunteer"?) at the Corporation for National and Community Service

Are we really to believe Obama that we may not be able to reverse our country's slide if he and Congress are prevented from ramming all this pork down our throats?  And, by the way, what happened to Obama's pledge to end pork barrel spending?

Another interesting tidbit:  Obama said that one of the reasons Congress must pass the stimulus bill, and must pass it NOW, is to end our dependence on foreign oil.  What is astonishing is that he made this proclamation about energy independence less than 24 hours after his new interior secretary canceled the oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of federal land.

There is nothing I can add to this.