Oreo is heading their way though. This latest initiative of his to pour
another $50 billion into infrastructure repair, etc is an example.
That was supposedly the whole basis for what he was going to do with the
TARP funds. Instead he poured it into payoffs to his buds and now he
wants more to do what he was going to do with the first batch. Any bets
on where the $50 billion will end up?
On 10/13/2010 11:19 AM, nominal9 wrote:
> How's that compare to the Wall Street and the Bank bailouts here in
> the U.S. under Bush/OreO, both?
> nominal9
>
>
>
> On Oct 12, 7:03 pm, dick<rhomp2...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>> *Pork Barrel Spending In Sicily: *If this article
>> <http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/356171-sicily-gobbler-eu-...>
>> is correct, Sicilian politicians could give much of the world lessons in
>> wasteful spending.
>>
>> Can we spend money? And how, the Sicilian authorities tell the EU
>> inspectors who've come from Strasbourg. And not just peanuts.
>> Because we do things big here or we don't them at all: after all,
>> we're spiritual heirs to the munificent, magnificent (Holy Roman
>> Emperor) Frederick II, the Stupor Mundi (Wonder of the World), whose
>> palace of velvet and gold is now the seat of the island's
>> parliament. So there's nothing left of the EUR8.5 billion that
>> Europe lavished on the area from 2000 to 2007 to stop the
>> development gap, not even the crumbs, as the regional authorities
>> insist on pointing out.
>>
>> Pity that in the same report that concludes Agenda 2000 --- the rain
>> of gold from Brussels that nurtured the island in those bumper years
>> --- the administration candidly admits that the money served no
>> purpose at all. EUR700 million to improve the water supply? In
>> 2000, the water supply was "stop-and-flow" for 33% of Sicilian
>> households, now 38.7% have water worries. Incentives to entice
>> off-season tourists? Cost EUR400 million, enough to buy up an
>> airline. And yet the ranks of those thankless tourists haven't
>> swelled, but petered out: from 1.2% in 2000 to 1.1% in 2007. And as
>> to the EUR300 million invested in alternative energy projects great
>> and small: it's true, there isn't a single hillock without its
>> windmill now, but Sicilian output is stuck at 5% of total
>> consumption, as against an average 9.1% for Southern Italy as a whole.
>>
>> Not that many of us want them to give those lessons, of course. But we
>> should recognize that a few politicians will see this example as
>> something to emulate, not avoid, and will see all those projects as good
>> ways to buy the votes they need.
>>
>> And we should recognize that the best money of all to waste --- from the
>> point of view of a pork-barrel politician --- is someone else's money.
>> There would have been less wasted in Sicily if the money had come from
>> Italy, rather than the whole European Union, and even less wasted if the
>> money had come from the places where it was spent.
>>
>> (Not so incidentally --- and we Americans should pay attention to this
>> --- wind and solar projects have been plagued by fraud in much of
>> Europe. The enormous subsidies attracted crooks, and we should expect
>> the same thing to happen here.
>>
>> Sicily has about five million people, so those EU subsidies would be
>> roughly $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in the island.)
>> - 10:11 AM, 12 October 2010 [link]
>> <http://www.seanet.com/%7Ejimxc/Politics/October2010_2.html#jrm9236>
>>
>> From Jim Miller on Politics
>>
>
--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
No comments:
Post a Comment