KUNM COMMENTARY: Who's Stimulus is this Anyway? Part Two - The Surprises

Here's the disclaimer - yes there are good things in the federal stimulus - but there are also a lot of costly items that have nothing or next to nothing to do with job creation or rebuilding the economy.

This analysis consists of the surprises, items that I was not expecting to find. there were many, but I am just highlighting my worst three.

Surprise Number One - Television: I have to admit, the national effort to convert every household to digital tv is a pet peeve of mine. This is a massive government outreach effort with endless radio and television ads, multiple mailings to every household and news stories. The stimulus adds $650 million for converter boxes to the $3 billion already spent. I don't know about you, but the one I bought was made in China.

Imagine if this scale of national effort was instead sending every home a coupon for a solar water heater or a coupon for a health checkup to the 49 million people without health insurance!

$650 million for tv and only $70 million for helping homeless school children in this stimulus. On any given night in the US, 1.35 million children are homeless. Here is one of the heartbreaking statistics about homeless children, the average age of a homeless person in Michigan is now 8 years old.

Surprise Number Two - Military: The number of military projects was completely unexpected in the stimulus, for operations, maintenance, construction and extra benefits. $100 million for something called "Warrior Transition Complexes."

The bloated military budget is a major factor in the financial crisis and it is unsustainable. Identifiable extra military spending in the stimulus was close to $20 billion, the final number may be higher. With the economy so weak, why are there are two active wars, 440 military installations in the US, nearly 1000 other US bases around the world in 80 countries, and on every continent including Antarctica. I do not believe that bankrupting the country to sustain this madness is a funding priority of the people.

Surprise Number Three - Police State: These are $7 million of unexpected appropriations in this category. A new report this week (March 2, 2009) found that prisons are now the second fastest growing items in state budgets, behind only Medicaid, well ahead of education and everything else.

Despite a 25% reduction in crime in recent years the prison industry has ballooned. There are 7.3 million adults in the system; 1.5 million in prison and nearly 6 million on parole or probation. This function of government needs a total transformation to treating the root causes of street crime; poverty, addictions, and an under-funded - in some places non-existent - mental health system. Private for profit prisons should be banned.

Some items in the stimulus that expand the police state are obvious such as $800 million for federal prisons and $3 billion for additional police. Others are scattered throughout; money for surveillance (also known as spying on Americans), courts, data mining techonology, and detention centers of all types. Together these items add up to billions.

While the people of both Mexico and the US long for a human rights based immigration policy, the militarization of the border and SWAT-military raids and roundups across the country continue. There are large increases to these inhumane policies in the stimulus. $100 million for border fencing and technology, $20 million for "tactical communications" for ICE (Immigration Customs and Enforcement). $300 million for border stations and $420 million for ports of entry.

No more surprises please. What the country deperately needs is a real investment in people - our human capital. Ultimately this is the only capital guaranteed to ge the country back on track!