Obama Stimulus Waste in North Carolina

Remember last year when we had to pass the stimulus package immediately, or unemployment would go to 8.5%? Well, unemployment peaked so far at over 10%, and the nearly 800 billion dollars that made up the stimulus has been used just like a typical big government spending spree.

I remember many ludicrous spending stories shortly after the stimulus plan was approved, but hadn’t heard of any recent transactions that bordered on the absurd. That is, until I happened across a blog from the John Pope Institute () that gave examples of the reckless stimulus spending in the state of North Carolina. Here is a “best of Obama Spending” list, as written by Brian Balfour of the Institute.

View this list as quasi-humorous, but please keep in mind that this type of spending is what may bring our county to its knees.

Stimulus Waste in the Great State of North Carolina

1. Study of monkeys using cocaine: $71,623
Wake Forest University was granted money to “study the effects of self-administering cocaine on the glutamate system on monkeys.” Well, at least the monkeys will be stimulated.

2. North Carolina Dance Theatre: $50,000
This grant is used to retain four professional dancers from the North Carolina Dance Theatre’s second company. Nice for them, but why are tax dollars financing what should be a privately-funded philanthropic organization?

3. Reducing hot flashes through yoga: $147,694
Funds granted to Wake Forest University to study “preliminary data on the efficacy of integral yoga for reducing menopausal hot flashes.” The President warned us that the stimulus plan was needed to avoid an economic “catastrophe.” How does this study help revive the economy?

4. Collecting, researching and reporting on the stimulus act: $115,000; $150,000; $227,940
Total: $492,940
Nearly half a million taxpayer dollars will go toward funding more propaganda selling the “benefits” of the stimulus plan. The federal government created the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, while North Carolina established the Office of Economic Recovery & Investment for these very purposes. Apparently, that’s just not enough propaganda.

5. Create interactive dance performance technology: $762,372
This grant to UNC-Charlotte will fund the development of computer technology to digitally record the dance moves of performers. The recorded movements can then be reviewed and manipulated by a computer program. Although creating virtual-reality type technology for dance movements may be interesting to those involved, how does this serve to “protect the education of our children”? At an average salary of roughly $47,000, this money could have saved 16 North Carolina teacher jobs.

6. American Dance Festival, Inc.: $50,000
A graphic designer and archivist will retain their jobs thanks to this grant. The American Dance Festival hosts dance classes, workshops and engages in other charitable activities to help support dancers. How will this help reverse a major international financial crisis, exactly?

7. Construction of a new Town Hall in Bladenboro: $200,000; $100,000
Total: $300,000
Why are taxpayers from across the country forced to finance construction of a local government office? This is a classic case of earmark pork spending.

8. North Carolina Folk Life Institute:$25,000
With the help of this grant, the Institute was able to retain its executive director. Will this help “provide relief to North Carolina’s families”?

9. Preservation of an insect collection at North Carolina State: $253,123
We were promised that the stimulus was going to “save jobs.” We were never told it would also help preserve dead bugs.

10. Greensboro Symphony Orchestra: $50,000
These funds are used to retain the GSO’s director of marketing and education manager. More bailouts of what should be a privately-funded organization.

Click here for A full list of the Obama Stimulus Expenditures

A billion dollars just isn’t a very trendy term anymore.

The new norm for today’s spending barometer is measuring the deficit in trillions, not billions. After all, in todays day and age of extreme sports and general sensationalism, isn’t a trillion dollars a much bigger shock factor?

Lost to most is the fact that they are absolutely numbed to the reality of what even a billion dollars entails. I have to admit that the term billion had lost much meaning to me as well, until this weekend while watching football. The Cowboys were on TV, and they were showing a special on the Cowboy’s new stadium, which boasts the largest television screen and scoreboard on earth, and is home to so many luxuries, it seems more at home in the pre-debt collapse country of Dubai.

So what was the price tag for the Cowboys new ultra modern home? The answer to that question is that it cost 1.1 billion dollars to buy the land and build the stadium with the most extravagant amenities in the world. So what is my point in this example?

You could buy 1400 Cowboys stadiums each year with the amount of the deficit

My point is that you could build nearly 1400 Cowboys stadiums each year with the equivalent of the current federal deficit. When you take this number and divide it by the 50, you quickly figure out that you could build 28 Cowboy domes in each and every state in the union. Now that puts things in perspective fairly quickly, but don’t forget that the 1.4 Trillion dollars is above and beyond the 3 trillion or so that is already in the budget. Now that my friends, is an example of government waste.

All of this data makes the following headline in today’s news just that much harder to stomach.

Today Congress approved an additional $290 Billion to get us through the next 6 weeks

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation giving the federal government the ability to borrow a whopping $290 billion to finance its operations for just six additional weeks.

The 218-214 vote sends the must-pass bill to the Senate, which is expected to approve it as its last act before adjourning for the year. The alternative would be a market-rattling, first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

The measure is needed as a result of the out-of-control budget deficit, which registered $1.4 trillion for the budget year that ended in September. The current debt ceiling is $12.1 trillion and is set to be reached by Dec. 31.

Democrats had hoped to pass a far larger increase of almost $2 trillion to avoid another vote before next year’s midterm elections — and to wrap the increase into the popular defense appropriations bill to give some political cover.

Oh, how I wish that I billion dollars by itself was still shocking.