How Do You Pass A Stimulus?

Well, the answer the first time around was: Load it with Pork and grab a couple of Republicans to join in the fun.

The answer the second time is: Load it with Pork and grab a couple of Republicans to join in the fun.

And who makes out? The National Institutes of Health, to the tune of 6.5 billion. Great cause, led by Senator Arlen Spector (R-PA). Because the health of our economy lies with the health of our people. Hopefully some of this money will be used to stimulate the economy in a timely manner.

Some of the other Pork? The Washington Post has a great graphic here describing the basic spending areas, but doesn't really get into the overall Pork nature of the funding. But the question I have is, if this is all being divided up amongst different branches of the Government as spending, then why not just do it in Budget?

And, why is the Real Issue not being addressed? What is causing this collapse? Are we witnessing the end of our economic system? Is this just a massive, worldwide market adjustment? Did we finally build enough stuff and now we have enough? Did a massive population of people die off somewhere that we aren't aware of? Can the whole world economy collapse this quickly because a couple trillion dollars worth of bad assets were created in unregulated trading environments?

Is this the beginning of the end of the USA, and the world governments?

Obama upholds Faith Policy

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama-faith6-2009feb06,0,2126007.story

So is this good or bad? What does it say about our new President? Has he broken a campaign promise for political purposes, or is it more than that? Was there actually a campaign promise regarding this?

Or, was it an informed decision that changed from the campaign trail to the White House, with new information at his (Obama's) disposal? It seems like this can be viewed a number of ways. On the one hand, it leaves a program in place that George W. put into place, which means that any number of Republicans, especially religious leaders, should applaud him for. On the other hand, Democrats are angry with him about this as they believe Federal funds should not go to any organization that sets hiring criteria based on religion (which opens the door to discriminate against certain sub groups, namely gays, lesbians).

However, he has left himself an out:
"In essence, the executive order, which did not specifically mention discrimination, gives the White House the option to review a specific grant for legal reasons but does not overturn Bush's broader policy."

So on a case by case basis, Obama could theoretically suspend funding if a church was to be deemed discriminatory against the policy of law. Leaving the door wide open for a targetted, specific purge of funds against churches that don't get along with the Administration.

So, good deed, or good way of controlling the churches?